


Intervention

by sinfuldesire_archivist



Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: Angst, Established Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-10-15
Updated: 2010-12-05
Packaged: 2018-09-03 10:41:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 46,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8709223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sinfuldesire_archivist/pseuds/sinfuldesire_archivist
Summary: It takes an accident for everyone to become aware of exactly how serious Jensen’s problem has become.  But how can Jared and the Ackles family help when Jensen is so in denial?  The only way they know how.





	1. Author's notes

**Author's Note:**

> Note from the Sinful Desire archivists: this story was originally archived at [Sinful-Desire.org](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Sinful_Desire). To preserve the archive, we began importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in November 2016. We e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact us using the e-mail address on [Sinful Desire collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/sinfuldesire/profile).

This story is slightly AU in that it is set at the end of filming for Season 6. J/G have been married for one year, J/D are coming up on their one year. It also suggests that at one time, Jared and Jensen had been together in a relationship, but broke up due to PR pressures and other outside influences. 

 

This story is told from Jared’s POV meaning there isn’t a lot of Jensen in it, even though the storyline is all about him. This is the first time I’ve ever written a story such as this. If I was talented enough, I would have tried to write it in first person, but that requires too much thinking. So I went this route instead. 

 

HUGE WARNING: This story absolutely, positively does not put Danneel in a positive light. If you are a fan of hers, I strongly suggest you not read it. She is written to come across as a self-centered, bitchy, drunken person (you know, her normal self as is my perception of her after meeting her several times at conventions). 

 

Likewise, if you are a fan of Genevieve’s, you may not want to read this because she is written as a whiney child who throws temper tantrums if she doesn’t get her way. 

 

I say this now because any feedback sent to me via private mail condoning my depiction of the ladies as unfair and wrong will not be responded to, will not stop me from writing, nor will your words change my mind. This is fanfiction meaning it is not real and is a fan’s interpretation of how things seem. If you are angry over this interpretation, then you need to be the one to step back and get some help on realizing the difference between real life and a fabricated one.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter One

 

Jared sighed and put his head in his hands as he listened to his wife ramble on once again about how come they never go to Idaho to visit her family, and that she hates Texas and San Antonio. It’s more of the same old argument they have every time Jared gets a break from filming and wants to fly home and visit his family. He almost bit his tongue off to keep from reminding Genevieve that it was her family that they spent Thanksgiving and Christmas with, much to the disappointment of his own family, and that he hadn’t seen his own family since hiatus last year.

 

“If you hate it so much, then why did you come?” Jared finally demanded to know. “I told you I was just going to fly down for my cousin’s wedding.”

 

“Oh, well, wouldn’t that look just dandy to your family,” Genevieve replied sarcastically. “Most of them hate me enough as it is, let’s just give them another reason to hate me even more by assuming I want nothing to do with the Padalecki family functions.”

 

“My family doesn’t hate you,” Jared sighed resignedly. Genevieve only snorted as she paced around Jared’s bedroom in his parent’s home. 

 

Before either could argue the point further, there was knock on the door to his room. “Come in,” Jared called out. He looked up and frowned in concern when he noted the worried look on his mother’s face. 

 

“Jared, Donna Ackles is on the phone,” Sherri informed me. “She’s really upset and needs to speak with you right away.”

 

Jared nodded and started to reach for the phone extension in his room. Sherri stopped him. “You might want to take the call from your father’s office.”

 

Jared’s heart seemed to stop beating for a few moments as he knew that meant it had to be serious. With only a nod to his mom, he ran from the room and could be heard running through the house. He grabbed the phone and sat down heavily in the chair. 

 

“Hello? Donna, what’s wrong?” he demanded. 

 

“Jared! Thank God you were home. Sweetie, Jensen was involved in a car accident and…we…we don’t know what his condition is.”

 

“My God!” Jared cried out. “What happened, what’s wrong with him?”

 

Jared could hear Donna starting to cry. “Donna? What hospital are you at? I’ll get there as quickly as I can.” While he was talking, he had logged onto his father’s computer and was booking a flight to Dallas. 

 

“He’s at JPS in Dallas,” Donna manages to get out. “There’s more Jared. The doctor’s here wanted to get Jensen’s medical history so they called the doctor you two have been using in Vancouver. They faxed down Jensen’s file. The medical Power of Attorney form was in there and that form lists you as the contact. The doctors here won’t tell us much because of that, even though we’re his parents.”

 

Jared groaned. “I’ll take care of that Donna. Look, there’s a flight that leaves in 2 hours. I can just make it in time to catch it. It lands at DFW at 2:00 and I’ll catch a cab to the hospital.”

 

“Don’t do that. I’ll have Josh come pick you up. It’ll be faster that way,” Donna assured him. “I’m just happy you’re going to come.”

 

“Of course I’ll be there,” Jared promised. “I’m glad you called to let me know. Don’t worry Donna. He’s tougher than he looks. He’ll be fine.” Donna only sniffled. “I gotta run, so I’ll see you in a few hours okay?”

 

“Okay. We’ll be waiting.”

 

Jared hung up and sat back for a moment collecting his thoughts. He then jumped up and ran back up to his bedroom and started throwing clothes into his bag. Genevieve had followed him up.

 

“What’s going on?” she demanded. 

 

“Jensen was in a car accident and is hurt,” Jared explained as he quickly packed. 

 

“So? What does that have to do with you?” Genevieve sat down on the bed. “Why do you have to go there?”

 

Jared only spared her a quick glance. “Because our doctor in Vancouver faxed over the medical Power of Attorney with the rest of his paperwork and I’m listed as the contact. They won’t tell his family anything. They need me up there.”

 

“Your father is waiting to drive you to the airport,” Sherri spoke up from the doorway. 

 

Jared nodded. “Thanks mom.” He grabbed his duffel bag and headed out. Sherri stopped him and gave him a hug.

 

“You call us and let us know if the Ackles need help with anything” she advised him. “Your dad and I will be up there in a flash if they do. I’ll call Jeff and let him know what happened. Maybe he can make sure Jensen is getting the best care there is.”

 

Jared smiled. “I’m sure he is, but thanks. If anything, Jeff can help us make sense out of all the medical mumbo jumbo.”

 

Sherri smiled and pats his arm. He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and was off and running once again. 

 

Genevieve huffed and shook her head. Sherri looked over at her indifferently. “Something wrong?”

 

Genevieve shot her a glare and then started moving around the room pulling her stuff together. “I’m not staying here alone.”

 

“You’re not exactly alone dear,” Sherri pointed out.

 

“I will be once Jared calls and lets you know how Jensen is doing,” she sneered. “Then I’m sure everyone will be off and running up to Dallas to rally around him and makes sure he gets better fast.”

 

Sherri took in a deep breath to dampen down her anger at her daughter-in-law. “We probably will, if we’re needed. It’s what families do, they try and be there for each other.”

 

“Sometimes I think the Ackles are more a family to you then I am,” Gen muttered under her breath. 

 

Sherri still overheard it and it angered her further. “They are Genevieve. They have been from the very first time Jared brought Jensen down to visit with us. And you want to know why they are like family to us? Because they never put on airs or pretended to be better than the rest of us. They never tried to keep my son from coming to see us on the holidays or the few times he managed to get a long weekend from filming and wanted to visit us. Or maybe it’s because our families will try and get together a couple of times a year just to catch up with each other in person instead of through phone calls or emails. Or maybe it’s because Jensen would do the exact same thing for us if it was Jared that was in a car accident and lying in a hospital bed and so would his family.” 

 

Sherri turned and left the room, afraid that if she waited to hear Genevieve’s response, she would completely lose her temper and say something very un-lady-like. She was just about to head down the stairs when Genevieve called out. 

 

“I don’t suppose there’s anyone here who could give me a ride to the airport!”

 

Not hearing a response from Sherri, Genevieve started shoving her stuff into her suitcase. “Of course not,” she muttered to herself. Finishing packing, she grabbed her suitcase and headed down the stairs. Sherri walked in from the kitchen. 

 

“I called a cab for you. Should be here in a few minutes,” Sherri didn’t wait to hear a response. 

 

Genevieve only huffed and headed towards the door. “Tell Jared I went back to LA,” she yelled out. “If anyone gives a damn.” She slammed the door shut and went out to wait by the curb for her cab. 

 

***** 

 

Jared’s leg bounced nervously as he watched the scenery fly by as his father drove him to the airport. It wasn’t until Gerry reached over and clamped a hand down on his knee to still the action that Jared realized how hard he had been bouncing his leg. 

 

“Son, I’m not ready to put new shocks on the car just yet,” Gerry teased him.

 

“Sorry Dad,” Jared apologized. “I’m just really worried and want to get up there.”

 

Gerry squeezed his son’s knee again. “I’m sure he’s going to be just fine Jared.”

 

“I hope so Dad.” Jared started gathering his things together as the car pulled into the departure area. “Thanks for the ride.”

 

“You be sure and call us and let us know what’s happening,” Gerry ordered. 

 

Jared smiled and waved at his dad and then took off running into the airport. He was beyond desperate to get on that plane and get up to Dallas as quickly as he could. 

 

***** 

 

It was probably going to go down as one of the longest flights Jared ever felt he had been on. He wanted to get off the plane as quickly as possible so he explained the situation to the flight attendant who assured him that as soon as the doors were open, they would let him depart first. 

 

Happy to hear that, as soon as the plane’s wheels touched down, Jared was on his phone calling Josh and setting up where they would meet. Time seemed to move quickly after that and before Jared knew it, he was in Josh’s car and they were headed towards the hospital.

 

“What exactly happened?” was the first question Jared asked. He frowned when the question seemed to make Josh angry. 

 

“He wrapped his truck around a tree is what happened,” Josh blurted out.

 

Jared’s jaw dropped. “He did WHAT?”

 

Josh’s hands gripped the steering wheel tighter. He turned to glare at Jared when he stopped for a red light. “He was drunk Jay. The toxicology report said his blood alcohol level was three times over the legal limit!”

 

“Damn!” Jared muttered. “What the hell was he thinking?”

 

Josh had to start driving again when the car behind him honked their horn letting them know the light changed to green. “He wasn’t. That’s the problem. He was too drunk to be thinking straight.”

 

“Why was he drinking so much?” Jared wanted to know. 

 

Josh blew out a frustrated breath. “Steve Carlson’s band is playing in Dallas,” was all he said. 

 

“SHIT!” Jared muttered. “Well that explains a lot. I suppose Danneel and Jason were amongst the group?”

 

“We don’t know for sure, but it’s a good bet,” Josh replied. 

 

“What do you mean you don’t know? Is Danneel too hung over to remember?” Jared asked.

 

Josh clenched his teeth together. “No one can get a hold of her. She went shopping with a friend and decided to spend a few days at their house. She left her cell phone at the house so we have no way of getting a hold of her.”

 

“She has no clue her husband is in the hospital in who knows what kinda condition?” Jared exclaimed incredulously. “Has it hit the news yet?” 

 

“Dad’s managed to keep it quiet. He’s talked to the police and they’ve agreed to keep Jensen’s name out of the media,” Josh explained.

 

“The police?” Jared paled. “He didn’t hurt anyone in the crash, did he?”

 

Josh didn’t answer right away as he focused on pulling into the hospital parking lot and finding a space. He waited until he shut the car off before answering. “Thankfully, no one else was hurt. But Jensen is still going to face charges of drunk driving.”

 

Jared sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Great. Just what he needs right now.”

 

“Come on,” Josh urged. “The family is waiting to see you.”

 

*****

 

Five minutes later, Jared was in the middle of a tearful reunion with the folks he considered a second family. Donna cried while he held her tight, Alan just smiled and gripped Jared on the shoulder. 

 

“I’m so glad you came, son,” Alan spoke up. 

 

“Nowhere else I’d rather be,” Jared assured him. “Has the doctor come by yet?”

 

Donna sniffled and finally pulled out of the hug. She dried her tears. “He was here about 15 minutes ago. We told him you were on your way from the airport. He said he’d be back shortly to talk to you.”

 

Jared frowned. “He still isn’t telling you guys anything?”

 

“Very little,” Donna replied sadly. 

 

Jared squeezed her hand. “I said I would take care of that and I will. Don’t worry.” He looked around the room. “Where’s Mac?”

 

“She ran out to get us something to eat,” Alan offered. “She needed some fresh air.” 

 

Jared nodded. The family sat down to bring Jared up to date on what they knew so far. It wasn’t long after that a doctor approached them. 

 

Donna noticed him first. “Jared, this is Dr. Brezina, Jensen’s attending physician. Dr., this is Jared Padalecki.”

 

The doctor shook hands with Jared. “I’m glad you finally made it, Mr. Padalecki.”

 

“Just call me Jared,” he offered. “Can you please tell me what’s going on with Jensen?”

 

Dr. Brezina nodded. “Of course. If you’ll come with me to my office, we can discuss this in a place a bit more private.”

 

Jared nodded and beckoned the Ackles family to follow them. Dr. Brezina stopped when he saw them all rising. 

 

“I’m sorry Jared,” he apologized. “Hospital policy states that I can only speak with you about my patient’s condition.”

 

Jared pulled himself up to his full height. “You can screw hospital policy Doc,” Jared demanded. “These people are his parents, his family! More so than I am. I understand you having to follow policy here, but I also see no reason why his family can’t be with us when we discuss Jensen’s condition. If there are any medical decisions to be made, I WON’T make them without talking to them first. So it would be a lot easier on everyone involved if you just let them come with to hear the whole story.”

 

Dr. Brezina hesitated for a moment, before nodding in agreement. “I’ll agree to allow his parents to join us.”

 

“Fair enough,” Jared relented. He glanced over at Donna and Alan and was rewarded with their thankful expressions. 

 

“That’s cool,” Josh added. “I can just sit here and wait for Mac to return and then you can fill us in.” He sat back down and watched his parents and Jared follow the doctor down the hallway. 

 

tbc


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

 

Ushering the group into his office, Dr. Brezina gestured for them to sit down. He himself leaned against the front of his desk and folded his arms across his chest. 

 

“Well, first off I want to let you know that Jensen is a very lucky young man. Other than the head wound which caused his concussion, he has no broken bones or internal injuries. There are also lots of cuts and scrapes from the windshield when it broke, but nothing that should leave a scar.”

 

Donna, Alan and Jared all sighed in relief. “How is that possible?” Donna needed to know. “We were told he was covered in blood when they brought him in.”

 

Dr. Brezina shrugged. “Head wounds are notorious for bleeding heavily. Jensen has a two inch gash on the side of his head along the hairline. Depending on the position he ended up in after the crash could explain why he was covered in blood.”

 

“But how do you explain the lack of other injuries?” Alan wanted to know. 

 

At that, Dr. Brezina moved around his desk and sat down in the chair. “I assume you were told that his blood alcohol level was at least three times over the legal limit?” They all nodded. “Well, what usually causes severe injuries in a crash such as this with a person who is sober is because they know its coming and they tense up. A person who is drunk, even though they may register that a crash is about to happen, their reflexes are too slow and their body is still relaxed. It’s able to absorb the shock of the crash much easier than if it was all tensed up.”

 

“That makes sense,” Jared reasoned. 

 

The doctor leaned forward and clasped his hands together. He frowned. “Which brings me to another issue and frankly, I’m not quite sure how ya’ll will want to handle it.”

 

“What is it?” Jared felt fear gnawing at his stomach. 

 

“Look. I know that your son is a celebrity, and as such, probably has a lot of demands on his time and his personal life,” Dr. Brezina began. “But I feel that it’s important to let you know that during my examination I noted that…well…” he paused. 

 

“Noted what, doctor?” Alan demanded. 

 

“To put it plainly Mr. Ackles, your son is exhibiting the early signs of being an alcoholic and if he doesn’t stop, it won’t be long before his liver starts to feel the effects of it all.”

 

Alan shot up from his chair. “My son is NOT an alcoholic,” he exclaimed angrily. 

 

Donna started to weep and Jared only leaned forward in his chair. 

 

“What makes you believe he is?” Jared asked softly. 

 

“As you know, we were required to take a sample of his blood for a blood alcohol content test,” Dr. Brezina began. 

 

“So!” Alan interrupted. “That only measures how much he drank. It doesn’t make him an alcoholic!”

 

“No, it doesn’t,” Brezina patiently agreed. “However, there are several other indications that we were able to identify from some additional tests that we did.”

 

“Like?” Jared prodded. 

 

Dr. Brezina sighed. “Even before you start to see any real outward signs of person who is drinking heavily, and by that I don’t mean them staggering around blind drunk. I mean the yellowing of the eyes, weight loss, and general lack of interest in just about anything. By the time you start to see those signs, the effects of heavy drinking have already been at work on the body for some time.”

 

“In what way?” Donna was curious. 

 

“The blood work showed signs of macrocytosis, or an enlargement of the red blood cells. Elevated GGT levels. GGT is a liver enzyme and an elevated level indicates excessive alcohol consumptions at least a month previous to when the test was done. We also ran a CDT lab test and it came back with high levels. That test detects the level of ethanol consumption and your son’s levels were extremely high.” The doctor paused and looked at the three family members taking in this information. 

 

“Based on the levels that came back, I would say that your son has been drinking heavily for several years now,” Brezina informed them. “From what I can tell, it hasn’t affected his liver . . . yet. But if he doesn’t stop drinking, it will only be a matter of time.”

 

Alan stood staring out the window of the office, silently fuming. Donna sniffled and fought to keep her tears at bay. Jared sat with his head in his hands, his fingers gripping tightly to the strands of hair between them. After a few long moments, Jared looked at the doctor. 

 

“When can we see Jensen?” he asked. 

 

“He should be up in his room by now,” Dr. Brezina concluded. “I’d like to keep him here for at least 48 hours to make sure the level of alcohol doesn’t bring up complications with the concussion.”

 

“Dr? What is your recommendation about the alcoholism?” Donna asked suddenly, ignoring the glaring look that Alan shot her. 

 

“I would really recommend that your son seek some professional assistance right away, Mrs. Ackles. To put it abruptly, he needs to dry out and participate in therapy sessions.” Dr. Brezina shrugged. “The only way I can see that happening is for him to be admitted to a rehab facility that specializes in this addiction.”

 

Dr. Brezina’s pager beeped at the moment. Checking it, he frowned. “I’m going to have to excuse myself here. Jensen is in room 514. Feel free to sit here and discuss what we’ve just been through for as long as you need. If you decide on sending him to rehab, I can give you some good recommendations.”

 

Jared only nodded and smiled at the doctor, who then turned and left his office. 

 

It was several minutes before anyone spoke up. Donna was the first one to overcome the shock of what they were just told. She stood up and smoothed out her skirt. “I’m going to see my son.”

 

Jared stood up and put his arm around her. “Sounds like a good idea. You two want to head on up and I’ll go get Josh and Mac? Give you a few minutes alone with him.”

 

“Thanks Jared,” Alan replied gratefully. Donna pat Jared on the cheek lightly then joined her husband and walked out of the doctor’s office.

 

Jared sighed heavily and ran his hand through his hair. Wanting to give Jensen’s parents a few extra minutes with their son, he decided to make a few quick phone calls. He called his parents and let them know what was happening and at that moment, he didn’t see a need for them to come up. 

 

“Genevieve left right after you did,” Sherri told her son. “She said she was going back to LA and she seemed pretty angry.”

 

“Yeah, I figured she would be,” Jared admitted. “And I’m sorry she’s going to be that way, but the Ackles need me.”

 

“Don’t worry about it Jared. You just focus on the helping Jensen and his family. Is there anything you need us to do for you?” Sherri asked. 

 

Jared chewed his bottom lip in thought. “Yeah mama, there is. Is Dad around?”

 

“No, he isn’t. One of his clients called and he had to go to a meeting. He won’t be home for another few hours.”

 

“That’s okay. Just uhm . . . when he gets back, ask him to keep Jensen’s file handy. I may need him to do some things with it,” Jared replied hesitantly.

 

“That sounds kind of cryptic Jared,” Sherri responded.

 

“I know mama, but I can’t really say much more right now, at least not until I talk with the Ackles,” explained Jared. 

 

“Okay. I’ll let your father know,” Sherri assured him. 

 

“Thanks. I gotta run mama. I need to call Eric and let him know what happened so he can be ready to run PR damage control if need be.” Jared said his goodbyes and hung up the phone. His finger hovered over Eric’s number for a moment before he finally pressed the Call button. 

 

“Hey Jared!” Eric greeted. “I didn’t expect to be hearing from you so soon. What’s up kiddo?”

 

“Hey Eric,” Jared returned the greeting. “I’m afraid this isn’t a social call or anything like that. I’m calling to give you a heads up on a situation.”

 

“What’s going on Jay? Are you alright?” Eric sounded worried. 

 

“I’m fine Eric,” Jared assured him. “It isn’t me, its Jensen. I’m up in Dallas with his family. Jensen’s in the hospital.”

 

“What happened?”

 

Jared sighed. “He wrapped his truck around a tree last night.”

 

“He did WHAT!”

 

“According to Jensen’s brother, he was driving home and lost control of his truck and hit a tree,” Jared explained. 

 

There were a few moments of silence on the other end of the phone. “What aren’t you telling me Jared?” Eric prodded. 

 

Jared closed his eyes. “Jensen was drunk, Eric. His blood alcohol level was three times over the legal limit.”

 

“SHIT!” Eric exploded. “What the hell was he thinking? Was anyone else hurt? How badly is he hurt?”

 

“No one else was involved, Eric,” Jared told him. “And I just got done meeting with his doctor, along with his parents. He’s got a concussion and a gash on his head. Other than that, besides a bunch of scrapes and cuts, he’s fine. Donna and Alan are with him now. I’m going to collect Josh and Mac and take them up in a few minutes.”

 

Eric sighed. “So he’s going to be okay then?”

 

Jared rubbed a palm over his face. “Sort of, at least physically anyway.” He paused for a moment. “Eric, the doctor is recommending that Jensen get involved in an alcohol rehab program. Apparently the way he’s been drinking is starting to show up on tests and shit.”

 

“Is that what his parents are going to do?” Eric wanted to know. 

 

“I don’t know. We just found all this out about 10 minutes ago. I don’t think they’ve even really had the time to process it all yet,” Jared replied truthfully. 

 

“Alright Jay. You keep me informed on what’s going on out there, and let me know as soon as you can. If I need to run some media interference I’ll do what I can,” Eric promised. 

 

“I will Eric,” Jared promised. “I better sign off now before Josh starts to worry. I’ll call you back when I can.”

 

“Okay kiddo. Take care of our boy.”

 

Jared hung up and stood still for a moment, collecting his thoughts and tapping into the strength he was going to need to stay held together for the Ackles family. They needed to hear some harsh truths about their son’s habits of late and he dreaded knowing that he was going to have to be the one to tell them. 

 

***** 

 

After going back and getting Josh and MacKenzie, Jared hesitated slightly upon entering Jensen’s room. It was only MacKenzie tugging on his hand that brought him completely into the hospital room and standing next to the bed. 

 

Casting his gaze over his friend, Jared frowned at how Jensen’s pale features made the bruising around his head where he was cut stand out that much more. He also noted that his friend appeared to be a bit bloated and his lips were drawn in a tight line as if he was fighting the pain. 

 

Before anyone could say anything about it, a nurse walked in with a syringe. “Dr. Brezina has ordered a light pain killer for Jensen,” she explained. “It’ll help cut back any pain he’s feeling but won’t cause any problems with the head injury.”

 

The family nodded and watched as the nurse expertly injected the medication into the IV line running into Jensen’s right hand. 

 

“He’ll most likely sleep through the night,” she told them. “Even if he does wake up, he’d be very groggy and disoriented.”

 

“Should he be getting a pain killer then?” Josh wondered. “I thought you weren’t supposed to do that to someone with a head injury?”

 

Dr. Brezina entered the room as Josh asked his question. “I had run a CAT scan on Jensen when he was first brought in. There’s no sign of skull fractures or any type of brain injury. He did wake up when he was being moved into the room and was able to answer questions, so I see no need to have him suffering needlessly.” The doctor did a quick check on his patient and then left the room.

 

Alan, who had been looking at Jensen and fighting the feelings of disappointment in his son and himself, spoke up. “Maybe suffering a little pain is what he needs to straighten himself up.”

 

“Now is not the time for that discussion Alan,” Donna warned. Alan only frowned as a reply and turned away from them all. Josh and Mac shared a puzzled look. Jared looked away from everyone and reached over and lightly gripped Jensen’s left hand in his. 

 

“What’s going on?” MacKenzie finally asked. 

 

“We’ll discuss it later, dear,” Donna dismissed her. 

 

Alan turned away from the window and headed for the door. “I’m going home. Donna, Jared, you can get a ride home with Josh.” He strode quickly out of the room before anyone could say anything. 

 

Donna sighed. “I guess we should all get going and let Jensen get some rest. No point in staying if he’s going to sleep through the night.”

 

“I’d like to stay until visiting hours are over,” Jared stated, still holding Jensen’s hand. “I’ll get a room at a nearby hotel.”

 

“You’ll do no such thing!” Donna replied adamantly. “You’re coming home with us and get a decent meal and sleep in a nice bed. Besides,” Donna gestured to Josh and MacKenzie. “There is going to be a family discussion when we get home and I have the feeling you’re going to be the one to fill in some of the big holes for us.”

 

Jared understood her meaning and nodded. They all said their goodbyes to Jensen and left the hospital. Piling into Josh’s car, they headed towards the Ackles home. 

 

“I hope this family discussion is going to answer a lot of the questions that seem to be hanging in the air,” MacKenzie threatened. 

 

Jared reached over and gripped her hand. “You may not like what you’re going to hear kiddo.”

 

“I don’t care,” she shot back. “I wanna know why my older brother felt it was necessary to get himself shit-faced drunk and then wrap his truck around a tree.”

 

“Have you been able to get a hold of Danneel,” Donna interrupted, changing the topic.

 

MacKenzie snorted. “Yeah right. She left her cell phone at home mom. She only does that when she wants to make it clear she’s not to be disturbed for anything. She told Jensen she was going to be gone for a few days shopping with some friends and they would be staying in town at a hotel.”

 

“Did you hear which one? Maybe we can leave a message there,” inquired Jared. 

 

“No. She didn’t say and I didn’t hear Jensen ask,” Mac admitted. “But knowing Danneel, it’s probably the most expensive hotel in Dallas.”

 

“That’s enough MacKenzie,” Donna ordered. 

 

“Whatever,” MacKenzie mumbled and sat back against the seat. The rest of the drive home was done in silence. 

 

tbc


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 

 

It was after Donna had made dinner and the dishes were put into the dishwasher that Alan called everyone into the living room. 

 

“Sit down everyone,” he ordered. “We need to have a serious discussion here.”

 

“Uhm . . . I’ll just go up to the bedroom so you can,” Jared began. 

 

Alan gestured towards the sofa. “No Jared. I think you need to be here just as much as each of us.”

 

Jared nodded and joined Josh on the sofa. 

 

Alan paced the floor for a few minutes before finally stopping in front of his family. “Josh, MacKenzie, I’m sure the two of you have tons of questions about what’s going on with your brother.”

 

“Damned straight we do,” MacKenzie spoke first. Both her parents frowned at her language. Alan gave her a disapproving look to which she only cocked her head towards him. 

 

“First off, you both should know that aside from a bad concussion and a gash on his head, overall your brother is not hurt in any other way.”

 

Josh let out a sigh of relief. “Well that’s good to know.”

 

“However,” Alan began, and then stopped. Everyone could see the anger and disappointment in Alan’s features. Donna decided to speak for him. 

 

“Jensen’s doctor told us something else that is not good news.” She put up her hand to stall her children from asking questions. “Let me explain it all first, then the questions.” They nodded. 

 

“When the doctors drew blood for the toxicology report, it wasn’t just to run tests on his blood alcohol level. They ran some other tests and the results from them show that your brother has been drinking heavily, and for quite some time.” 

 

Alan sat down heavily in his recliner. “The doctor has even gone so far as to suggest that your brother might be an alcoholic.”

 

“WHAT!” Josh and MacKenzie yelled at the same time. 

 

“I know,” Alan understood their shock. “I refuse to believe that of my son.”

 

“How could he just make a diagnosis like that?” Josh wanted to know. “He doesn’t know Jensen at all. He knows nothing about him.”

 

Donna had been looking at Jared during the exchange and noticed the pained expression and the fact that he would not make eye contact with anyone. She knew what she was about to ask him was going to be difficult for him to do. 

 

“Jared?” she called him softly. “I think it’s time that you filled in those holes I mentioned earlier.”

 

Jared’s head shot up and he looked at her in disbelief. “Donna, it isn’t my place to say. . .”

 

“Right now, you’re the only one who can tell us the truth. Please Jared,” Donna begged. “I need to know what’s going on with Jensen so we know what kind of decision we need to make to help him.”

 

Jared closed his eyes for a moment, dreading what he was going to have to tell them. After a moment, he nodded, opened his eyes and looked at each family member. His gaze stopped at Alan. 

 

“I know you don’t want to hear this Papa Ackles, but the doctor is right. Jensen has been drinking heavily, and not just beer. He’s been knocking back the hard stuff too,” Jared admitted. 

 

Alan clenched his jaw, but said nothing. Hearing the words coming from Jared directly, he knew it had to be the truth. As much as he wanted to deny it to himself, he couldn’t. Like his wife said, they needed to know so they could find out why and then try and help get their son back. 

 

“Tell us what you can, Jared,” Alan asked him. 

 

Jared sighed and sat back. “I’m not really sure I can pinpoint exactly when it started. I mean, from the first time I met him, we’ve always gotten together after work for a couple of beers, or when we go out to dinner we have some wine. But Jensen’s never drank so much that he would be falling down drunk. At any network events, he might have some whiskey, but again, never more than a couple of glasses and then he’s done. I always figured it was because of the paparazzi around all the time and not wanting to make a fool of himself if he’s caught drunk.”

 

“So when did things start to change?” Josh wondered. 

 

Jared frowned. “It was shortly after we stopped seeing each other.”

 

“You know, not to change the subject here,” MacKenzie interrupted. “But we never did hear exactly why you two did and why you both suddenly turned into the epitome of straight guys.”

 

Jared shrugged. “It was a lot of things, Kenz. I wanted to come out because I didn’t want to hide the relationship any longer, but Jensen didn’t. He said it would ruin our careers at this stage and begged me to wait at least until Supernatural was done. But then we got another season and it would have been even longer before we could say anything. Then we both started getting a lot of flak from the network about our “antics” in public. Eric, Osterhoff and our managers all pretty much told us to end the relationship and start dating women. Jensen took their orders to heart and told me to back off. He then started getting more serious with Danneel.”

 

“That must have been hard for you both to keep living together,” Donna questioned. 

 

Jared nodded. “Yeah. Things got really crazy after Season 3 when we did that convention in Australia with Misha and then London.”

 

MacKenzie snorted. “A little crazy! Jared, the internet exploded with gossip and rumors about you guys. I think that’s also when Ted Casablanca really started in on the pushing that you two were in a hot gay romance together.”

 

Jared rolled his eyes. “Yeah. Good ole’ Ted is another reason why we had to stop. Anyway, when we got back to Vancouver to start filming Season 4, Jensen and I sat down and had a long talk. We both admitted that it hurt that we weren’t together anymore, but our friendship meant too much to the both of us to throw it away. So we both agreed to just put it behind us and work on keeping our friendship strong. I think that’s about the time that Jensen started drinking heavier than normal.”

 

“What tipped you off?” Alan prodded. 

 

“It’s kinda hard to really explain,” Jared admitted. “I mean, whenever he was with me, he was perfectly fine. But the few times we went down to LA together and I went with him to a concert that Steve was having, Jensen pretty much left me on my own while he hung out with Steve and Jason and his other friends. I also noticed that he went from drinking beer to whiskey and he was really putting it away.” Jared shrugged and looked down sadly. “He would usually end up drunk and became this person I didn’t recognize.”

 

“The hard stuff will do that to a person,” Alan informed them. “Remember what my own brother went through?” His family nodded. 

 

“So anyway, that’s pretty much when I stopped going out with Jensen and the gang. By the end of filming for season 4, I came to the realization that Jensen was pretty much turning into a Hollywood party animal.”

 

“That’s for sure,” agreed MacKenzie. “Your sister and I have seen the pictures taken of him and Danneel coming out of parties, or at up-fronts, or other network events. It’s so easy to see that Jensen is totally smashed in them.”

 

“I know. I’ve seen them too,” admitted Jared sadly. “Then Jensen told me he decided to propose to Danneel and from that moment on, I don’t think he’s ever been seen sober any time he’s caught in public with her.” He paused for a long moment. “Uhm . . . it actually got to a point where he was coming on the set and you could tell he’d been drinking. Not enough to make us shut down for a few hours and he certainly didn’t have any problems delivering his lines. It’s like he was just going through the motions of being Dean without really being there.”

 

Alan nodded. “It’s called being a Functional Alcoholic. A person can appear to be functioning completely normal, doing their jobs just as well as ever. It’s only their personal lives that are out of control.”

 

Everyone sat quietly for a few moments thinking over the situation, lost in their own thoughts over what they never thought would happen to their son or brother. 

 

“Does this mean what I think you’re saying Jay?” MacKenzie finally, hesitantly asked. 

 

Jared shrugged. “If you’re asking me if I think Danni, Steve, Jason or the other guys that Jen hangs out with are responsible for it, to some extent I say yes. But it’s not like they’re pouring the liquor down his throat.”

 

“No. But they aren’t exactly helping the situation any by drinking themselves into oblivion at the same time,” Alan remarked.

 

Donna sighed. “You know, I never told this to Jensen, but from the very first time I met Danneel I just felt that she would never be the right woman for him. She’s always been just too Hollywood for Jensen and I never understood what he saw in her. But because he seemed happy with her, I kept my mouth shut and let him be. And now I’m sorry I did so because I’ve done nothing but sit here and watch her draw him into a lifestyle he swore to us he would never take part of. That was the only thing his father and I urged him to be watchful of when his career started to take off, to be careful to not get involved with the partying and boozing folks in Hollywood.”

 

“We overlooked the few times he strayed into that scene,” Alan continued, “because I know how hard it is to turn your back on all that. And he really didn’t seem to enjoy those times that he did. I just can’t understand what caused all that to change his mind.”

 

Josh and MacKenzie shared a look, Josh urging his sister to speak up. 

 

“I think I can tell you,” Mac hinted. She looked over at Jared. “You may not like what you hear because it’s sort of all the gossip about you two.”

 

“Sweetie, if you think it might have to do with the overall problem, I think it’s important we hear about it,” Donna urged. 

 

Jared nodded in agreement. “I know you and Megs lurk at a lot of the sites Kenz. Even if it isn’t relevant, it still might give us some idea.”

 

“Alright,” MacKenzie sighed. She collected her thoughts for a moment than turned to look at Jared. “Well, you both know that there’s been a lot of speculation over your relationship for a long time, right?” Jared rolled his eyes and nodded. MacKenzie smiled. “The fans are guessing that you guys got hot and heavy for a while there after you broke up with Sandy and Jensen moved in, but were then forced to break up by your managers, or the network. Once that happened, Jensen started heavily dating Danneel and then you “supposedly” got involved with Genevieve.”

 

Josh frowned. “But all that is true. What’s the problem?”

 

“The problem,” MacKenzie continued. “Is that the fans are assuming that Jensen is really upset over the “breakup” and was feeling forced into marrying Danneel to keep up the straight image, so he started drinking. There are pictures all over the internet of Jensen with Danneel and he never looks happy to be with her and a lot of those pictures are from them out somewhere and he has a drink in his hand.”

 

Josh shrugged. “I don’t see how some fan gossip could turn Jensen into an alcoholic.”

 

“It’s because of those fans who keep gushing over how good Jensen and Danneel look together and how they have the perfect relationship and yadda, yadda, yadda,” MacKenzie responded sarcastically. “It’s pushed Danneel’s ego overboard, that’s how. You should have seen the gossip sites over the whole tweet war between Danneel and Ted Casablanca. She made herself look like an immature 12 year old rather than a grown woman.”

 

Jared spoke up softly before Josh should reply back. “In a way, I think she’s right.”

 

“How so, Jared?” Donna asked. 

 

“It’s all the pressure we’ve been put under by everyone to appear to be completely normal,” Jared gushed. “Add all that to the stress of the hours we work, the demands our wives are making on us, not to mention the families. . .” Jared clamped his mouth shut when he realized what he said.

 

“What do you mean, son?” Alan pushed. “What have we done to help push our son down this path?”

 

Jared looked up at Donna and then Alan, frowning. “If Jensen and I had stayed together, would you, Donna, be pushing him so hard to start having kids and settling down?”

 

Donna fell back against the couch when she realized what Jared was asking. She felt ashamed at herself when she thought back over all the times she complained about her son not settling down and giving her grandkids.

 

“Don’t sweat it, Donna,” Jared knew what she was thinking. “My mama does the same thing to me.”

 

“But your mama’s urges haven’t sent you on an alcoholic binge,” Donna reminded him. 

 

“True,” Jared conceded. “But then again, I don’t have a bunch of friends who seem to think it’s nothing to get together every night and drink themselves into oblivion. Nor am I straddled with a wife who is known for having a prior drug and alcohol problem.”

 

Alan finally spoke up, his words soft. “We can all sit here and speculate all we want about what caused it, but I don’t think it’ll get us anywhere. Jensen is the only one that needs to find the answer to that. 

 

Jared, I know you aren’t aware of this, but my own brother was an alcoholic and the family went through hell because of it. But back then, there really wasn’t anything anyone could do except sit around and watch the person destroy themselves. If they didn’t want to stop, there wasn’t anything you could do to make them.”

 

“That must have been hard to deal with,” Jared was sympathetic. 

 

“It was,” Alan sadly remembered what his family went through. “But we have options today that my brother and my family didn’t back then.”

 

“What are you suggesting Dad?” Josh was curious. 

 

“Dr. Brezina mentioned having Jensen committed to a rehab center to, well, to basically dry out and get his act together,” Alan explained. 

 

MacKenzie snorted. “He’ll never agree to it Dad.”

 

The doorbell rang at that moment and Alan got up. Maybe not, but I’m sure with the right encouragement, he will.”

 

Alan left to answer the door and everyone looked at each other puzzled. They heard Alan answer the door and some quiet discussion taking place as Alan led their visitor into the room. 

 

“Jared, this is Tom Inman our family attorney. Tom, this is Jared, Jensen’s best friend and co-star,” Alan introduces them. 

 

“Lawyer?” Jared looked puzzled at Alan.

 

“Jensen is undoubtedly doing to be facing some legal charges,” Tom spoke right up. “Alan called me here to see what we could do to keep Jensen from serving any jail time.”

 

“Is that a possibility?” Donna asked, concerned. 

 

“To be totally honest, I doubt it,” Tom reassured her. “It’s the first and only time Jensen has ever been caught driving drunk. Other than totaling his own car, he caused no property damage and no one else was hurt. He’s got a clean record. I did a bit of digging before coming here and I’m pretty sure I know which judge will preside over the case.”

 

“Is that good or bad?” Josh inquired. 

 

“The judge is fair, but he can be harsh when warranted,” explained Tom. 

 

Jared had been thinking frantically while only half listening to what the attorney had to say. An idea suddenly formed that he felt would solve all their problems. “Tom?” he suddenly blurted out. 

 

The attorney seemed surprised at the outburst. “Yes?”

 

Jared shared a look with all the Ackles. “How hard would it be to convince the judge that Jensen needs to be admitted to a rehabilitation clinic to clean up his act?

 

Alan nodded in understanding and Donna looked a bit relieved. 

 

“Does he need to be?” Tom wanted to know as he looked at each of the family members. 

 

“Yes,” Alan responded immediately. “It’s much worse than you really know Tom.”

 

“Why would you want his rehab to be court ordered?” questioned Tom. 

 

“Because Jensen will never agree to go on his own,” Alan shot back. “If we force him to go, he’ll just get cocky about it, go for one session and then leave. We need to make this a matter of either he goes to rehab on his own, or he serves some jail time.”

 

Tom sat back and blew out a breath. “Well, I can definitely speak to the judge about it and see if he’ll go along. I don’t really see where it would be a problem, especially if the entire family is backing the decision.”

 

“We’re insisting on it,” Donna replied adamantly.

 

Tom nodded. “Okay then. Do you know when Jensen is going to be discharge from the hospital?”

 

“Probably day after tomorrow,” Alan reasoned. “His doctor wants to keep him in for 48 hours to monitor his condition. Why?”

 

“Well, normally, Jensen would have been arrested and either held overnight or released on bail. His court appearance would be within the next 24 hours. But because he was hospitalized,” Tom explained, “this will give me a chance to speak to the judge tomorrow and present the deal to him. Like I said, it’s a first offense AND because he’s a celebrity, the judge isn’t going to want to deal with any media hanging around the court room. I’m positive he’ll agree to the conditions. If Jensen doesn’t want to serve any jail time, then he’ll have no choice but to accept it.”

 

Alan and Donna looked relieved. “Thanks Tom!”

 

Tom smiled. “No problem. I better get going so I can get all this started.” He got up to leave and shook everyone’s hand. “Jared, it was nice meeting you. I’m happy to know Jensen has a good friend watching out for him.”

 

Jared smiled and sat back down as Alan escorted their friend to the door. Coming back, he sat down next to Donna on the sofa. “Well. At least that’s one load off our plate.”

 

Josh spoke up. “Uhm, what are we going to do about Danneel? You know she’s not going to be happy about all this.”

 

“As far as I’m concerned, she doesn’t deserve to know a thing,” Donna replied bitterly. “She’s probably responsible for a lot of this mess our son is in right now.”

 

“I agree mom,” MacKenzie said calmly. “But I think we have another problem to consider.”

 

“What could be more important than helping Jensen get through this?” Donna wanted to know. 

 

“Uhm, how about making sure that Danneel doesn’t bankrupt Jensen in the process,” MacKenzie replied sarcastically. Think about it. Jensen’s rehab is probably going to be what? At least 8 weeks in length if it’s going to do any good? Danneel is out there right now shopping for Lord knows what and she’s using their joint credit card. I overheard them arguing before she left about some “things” she wanted to buy with “their” money. Jensen didn’t want her to spend it on junk and she yelled at him about it. If he’s gone for 8 weeks, who’s going to control her? She’ll break him by the time he gets out.”

 

“No she won’t,” Jared interrupted softly.

 

tbc


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

 

“What was that sweetie?” Donna asked him. 

 

Jared looked up at the Ackles family. “I said, no, she won’t.” He took a deep breath and moved to sit on the edge of the sofa. “Look, ya’ll know that Jensen decided to seek out my father’s help with his finances way before he married Danneel.”

 

“Yes,” Alan agreed. “Your father’s done an excellent job in investing Jensen’s money. We were a bit concerned when he started, thinking it might be a conflict of interest for him since he also handles your finances as well.”

 

“Dad would never hold that against Jensen or take advantage of it,” Jared replied adamantly. 

 

“We know that,” Alan soothed. “But what does this have to do with Jensen’s money?”

 

“Dad always puts a clause in the contracts to help protect the assets of his clients. Basically, the clause states that, if for any reason Jensen is not able to responsibly handle his financial situation due to medical reasons, the person who holds the Medical Power of Attorney automatically becomes the executor of Jensen’s finances. If Jensen was killed in the accident, or died later,” Jared swallowed at those thoughts. “Well, the person who has the full Power of Attorney would become the executor of the estate, and that’s you Alan.”

 

“What exactly are you saying Jared?” Alan questioned. 

 

“Jensen is going to be committed to rehab because of his alcoholism,” Jared explained. “This is a medical necessity which means the Medical Power of Attorney and the person signed to take over that responsibility becomes the main controller of Jensen’s estate. That would be me.”

 

Josh grinned. “You sly devil,” he nodded in appreciation. “So you can keep Danneel from spending all of Jensen’s money while he’s in rehab.”

 

“Actually,” Jared winced. “I was kinda hoping that Alan and Donna would take that on.”

 

“Us?” Donna was surprised.

 

“Yes. I don’t want to take on the responsibility of his money and his homes and all that. I would really feel a lot better about it if you two would,” Jared begged. “I know my dad can easily handle that transfer of responsibility. While he’s doing that, he can freeze all the joint accounts and make sure that Danni can’t sell anything of his, or try to max out his credit cards or clean out his bank account.” 

 

“Oh that is so going to royally piss her off,” MacKenzie gloated. “I can’t wait to see it happen.”

 

Alan just ignored his daughter’s comments. “It’s a sound plan, Jared. It’s also the only way I can see to legally protect everything Jensen has worked so hard for.” He sat back in his chair and looked at his family. “I want you all to know that while I was driving back from the hospital, I made some phone calls. There is a rehab clinic in Richardson that I think is the best choice for Jensen to be sent to. They have an eight week program that requires the patient stay at the clinic for the full time. Jensen won’t be allowed to have any visitors, or receive any phone calls for the first five weeks. After that, the clinic will limit who is allowed to visit him, and since Jared is technically going to be the one having him committed, Jared determines who will be allowed to visit him.”

 

“We can’t talk to Jensen for over a month!” MacKenzie exclaimed. “How will we know how he’s doing or if he needs something?”

 

“The clinic would be sending out updates to Jared. You can ask for them to be weekly, bi-weekly, even daily if you wanted to,” Alan looked over at Jared. 

 

“Well, we don’t need to discuss that part of it right now,” Donna interrupted. “It’s been a very long day for all of us and the next few days will be even longer.” She stood up. “I’m going up to bed. Jared, you know where the guest room is. Everything is all set up for you.”

 

Jared smiled. “Thanks Donna. I think I’ll head up too. I’m trashed.”

 

The others followed suit and within the next hour, the Ackles home was dark. Jared lay in the bed listening as the various doors to bedrooms closed and the muted sounds of the family settling in for the night. As for himself, even though he admitted to being exhausted, he found that he couldn’t fall asleep. So much was running through his head and he was having a hard time “shutting his brain” down for the night. He jumped slightly when the sound of his cell phone ringing startled him.

 

Grabbing the phone out of his coat pocket, Jared answered it without checking the caller ID. “Hello?”

 

“Jared, hey man. Have you heard from or spoken to Jensen lately? No one seems to be able to get a hold of him.”

 

Jared winced. “Hey Chris. Uh, no I haven’t actually spoken to Jensen for a couple of days.” Well it was partially true.

 

“I’m starting to get worried. I’ve left countless messages for him both voice and text and he hasn’t called back.”

 

“Uhm, Chris?” Jared hesitated. He knew Chris was going to be pissed he didn’t call him right away, but in all honesty, Jared didn’t know how involved with all the problems with Jensen he might be. He knew Chris’ history with Jensen and how protective he was, but right now, Jared was the main thing standing between Jensen’s current group of friends and Jensen himself. 

 

“What is it Jared? Do you know something?” Chris’ voice was demanding. 

 

“Yeah, actually. Jensen is the hospital. He’s okay, not hurt seriously or anything like that,” Jared rushed out his response before Chris could interrupt. 

 

“What happened?” Chris demanded to know. 

 

Jared sighed. “According to Josh, Jensen went to Steve’s concert here in Dallas. Jason, Danneel and some other friends were there too. Jensen was drinking pretty heavily and on his way home, he had an accident and wrapped his truck around a tree.” He heard Chris’ sharp intake of breath. “Like I said though, he got off lucky. He’s got a concussion and a two inch gash on his head, but other than that, he’s fine.”

 

“Was anyone else involved?”

 

“Thankfully, no, just Jensen,” Jared paused. “The family attorney came by and said that Jensen was going to face some charges of drunk driving.”

 

“Damn!” Chris muttered. He was silent for a long moment. “Wait a minute, Jay. Are you there in Dallas? You said here in Dallas and then the attorney came by.”

 

“Yeah. I am,” Jared admitted. “Donna called me from the hospital. Gen and I were down at my parents for a family wedding. I came right up as fast as I could.”

 

“Good. That’s good,” Chris sounded pleased. “If I had known I would of flown out right away myself but filming this week has been hell.”

 

“So you weren’t here for Steve’s concert?” Jared asked. 

 

“Nope. I would have liked to go, but like I said, filming has been hell this week,” Chris explained. “The rains have been pretty heavy and this episode is somewhat location specific so there was only so much we could do in the studio.”

 

“I hear ya,” Jared understood Chris’ frustration. “Look, Chris, I’m going to be totally honest here with you about some things in regards to Jensen.”

 

“That doesn’t sound like ‘he’s okay’ to me Jay. What the hell is going on?”

 

“I’ll tell ya, I promise,” Jared huffed. “Don’t hate me for saying this Chris, but I needed to make sure you weren’t involved in all this first, cause if I thought you were, I wouldn’t tell you a thing.”

 

“What the hell Jared! If you know something you better start spilling or I’ll kick your ass the next time I see you,” Chris threatened. 

 

Jared actually smiled at the threat. He now knew for sure that Chris wasn’t aware of the depth of Jensen’s problem. “Okay, okay. Just calm down. Let me tell you everything and hold off on the questions until I’m done, okay?”

 

At a grunt from Chris, Jared quickly explained everything, up to and including the fact that the family was going to have him admitted to a rehab clinic to dry him out. He finished and waited quietly for Chris to digest the information. After a few minutes of not hearing anything, he tentatively called out. “You there Chris?”

 

“Yeah, I’m here. Just trying to make sense out of all that,” Chris admitted. Jared heard him sigh heavily. “Ya know I feel really bad right now. I sorta knew that Jensen’s drinking was starting to get outta control the last time he came down to Portland when I played at Dante’s. I was planning on talking to him about it, but then Danneel had something or other going on with her network show and she dragged him back to LA the next morning. I’ve been trying to catch up with him, but it’s either been your shooting schedule or ours that didn’t allow it.”

 

“It’s okay Chris,” Jared assured him. “Everyone is feeling the same way right now, including me. I mean, I’m literally with him 24/7 and I knew something was going on, but never did anything about it. I’m probably more to blame for not doing something about it than the rest of ya’ll.”

 

“Don’t even go there Jay, okay?” Chris warned him. “We can all play the ‘should of, could of’ game over this but we would just end up making ourselves miserable. Hell, I saw what hanging out with the group was doing to him and I said nothing. Out of everyone in the group he is my oldest and dearest friend and if it comes down to me having to choose them over Jensen . . . well. I just kinda hate it that you’ve been pushed into the middle of this. I know you don’t exactly like our little group.”

 

“That’s not it, Chris,” Jared interrupted. “You guys are alright most of the time. It’s only when everyone starts drinking heavily that I start to not like it.”

 

“I know. To be honest with ya, I kinda hate it too. That’s why I sorta stopped drinking so much when we all get together.” Chris sighed heavily. “I always thought you and Jensen were just playing it a bit too straight when you first started doing Supernatural and you guys came to hang out, but didn’t drink more than a few beers. But now that I’m doing Leverage, I realize that the reason you don’t drink a lot is because of the prying eyes all over the place.”

 

Jared laughed. “You got that right. We can’t afford to be caught falling down drunk or causing trouble. Too many people rely on us.”

 

“Exactly. And even though I got four other co-stars, man, I still feel the pressure,” Chris vented. “It’s like, the fans have this image of Elliot and if I’m caught drinking or even a little drunk, I’m going to crush that image and ruin the show for everyone. I don’t know how the hell you guys managed to do it for so long.”

 

Jared smiled softly. “It helps having someone to share the burden with.”

 

“We’ll do what we can to make sure he gets back to where he can help you share that load, Jay. I promise,” Chris assured him. 

 

“Thanks Chris.”

 

“There’s more, isn’t there?” Chris couldn’t put his finger on it, but he could sense that Jared still had more to tell him.

 

Jared was genuinely puzzled by the question. “More? I’m not sure what you mean?”

 

“What do you still have to tell me about all this that I’m not going to like one bit and will probably smash my hand through the wall over,” Chris said bluntly. 

 

Jared sighed over realizing he didn’t finish the whole story to Chris. “Uhm, Alan has a center picked out and once Jensen is admitted, he won’t be allowed to speak or visit with anyone for the first five weeks. After that, visitors will only be limited to who I say can go.”

 

“Damn” Chris muttered. “Exactly how long is he in for and why you?”

 

“It’s an eight week program in the rehab center with another few months of therapy sessions once he’s released,” Jared explained. “Alan knew about the center because of what his brother went through. And apparently, because Jensen and I signed a Medical Power of Attorney form for each other while we’re in Vancouver, it holds up down here. So the Ackles want me to continue to make the medical decisions.”

 

“That’s rough,” commented Chris. “What does Jensen say about all this?”

 

“Well . . . he uh . . . doesn’t exactly know about it yet,” Jared admitted hesitantly. 

 

Chris snorted. “Dare I ask why?”

 

Jared shrugged to himself. “He was still unconscious when we left the hospital. The doctor cleared him to be given some pain killers and the nurse told us he would be out for the night.”

 

“Well, if the doc’s giving him pain killers, then I guess there’s no head injury. That’s a good sign at least.” Chris paused. “What about Danneel? You haven’t said anything about her reaction to all this.”

 

Jared snorted. “You mean his MIA wife? She doesn’t know anything yet.”

 

“WHAT! How the hell could she not know?” Chris demanded. 

 

“She’s out ‘shopping’ with some friends of hers. She apparently told MacKenzie she would be gone for a couple of days and left her cell phone here at the house so she wouldn’t be bothered,” Jared explained. “Donna is fit to be tied about it.”

 

“I’ll just bet,” Chris snickered. “Donna’s not really a D fan, if you get my meaning.”

 

“Oh, you ain’t kidding!” Jared chuckled. “Mama Ackles is definitely in protective mother mode right now.” Chris joined him in a laugh, knowing how fierce Donna Ackles could become when it came to the safety of her children. 

 

“Jared, do you need me to fly there to help with anything? You probably want to get back to Genevieve and I’m done with filming tomorrow. I can be there by late afternoon,” Chris suggested. 

 

“Genevieve went back to LA, probably in a huff. Don’t worry about that. And, as much as I would love to say yes, Chris get your ass out here, I think it’s better if you stay away for right now,” Jared admitted. He knew Chris wasn’t going to be happy about those words. Chris surprised him though. 

 

“Alright Jay. As much as I really want to be there, I’ll follow your lead. Just do me a favor and let the family know I’m there if they need me and I’ll do whatever it takes to help Jensen get through this.”

 

Jared smiled. “I will Chris. Thanks for being so understanding on this.”

 

“Not a problem. Just take care of our boy or I’ll still fly out there and kick your ass,” Chris threatened good-naturedly. “Take care Jay.” 

 

Jared smiled as he ended his call with Chris. He felt better knowing that he had at least one of Jensen’s friends in his corner and that Chris would help Jensen get through this. 

 

***** 

 

The next morning dawned early for everyone in the Ackles household. Jared made his way downstairs and wasn’t surprised to see that Donna was busy in the kitchen cooking up breakfast. Alan was sitting at the table, drinking a cup of coffee and reading the paper. MacKenzie was sitting in another chair, texting on her cell phone. 

 

“Morning,” Jared mumbled to everyone as he sat down in a chair across from Alan. 

 

“Morning sweetie,” Donna greeted him and set a cup of coffee down in front of him. “Are you hungry?”

 

Alan snorted. “Of course he’s hungry, Donna. According to Jensen, he eats a big breakfast in the morning.”

 

“I’m really not that hungry, Donna,” Jared replied. “Don’t put yourself out for me.”

 

“Nonsense!” Donna patted Jared on the shoulder. “You need to eat something sweetie. You hardly ate any dinner last night and if you don’t eat something now, you’ll just fill up on candy later.”

 

“Yes ma’am,” Jared nodded sheepishly. Megan and Alan were snickering at him and Jared only shot them an annoyed look. 

 

Donna set down a plate of pancakes, scrambled eggs and sausage in front of him and Jared dug in. Even though he said he wasn’t hungry, his body betrayed him at the first taste of food and before Jared knew it, he cleaned every morsel off his plate.

 

“Thought you weren’t hungry?” MacKenzie mocked him. 

 

“Hush,” Donna scolded her as she joined the family at the table. Sipping her own coffee, she looked over at Jared. “Not that I’m prying or anything Jared, but I thought I heard a phone ring after we all went to bed last night.”

 

Jared winced. “I’m sorry. I hope it didn’t wake you guys up. I forgot to shut my cell phone off when we got in.”

 

“We were still up,” Alan assured him. “Kinda late for callers, although I guess if they were in California, it was still early.”

 

Jared nodded. “Right coast, wrong state. It was Chris calling. He’d been trying to get a hold of Jensen and was worried so he called me.”

 

Donna and Alan shared a glance. “Did you tell him anything?” Alan asked. 

 

“I told him everything,” Jared admitted. He briefly outlined their conversation.

 

“So you believe him then?” Mackenzie offered this time. 

 

Jared thought for a moment and then nodded. “Yeah, I do. The fact that he told me he was pretty much thinking of saying something to Jensen, plus the fact that he’s busy with his own career right now and really doesn’t have the time for a lot of socializing afterwards. . . yeah, I believe him.”

 

“Good,” Donna nodded confidently. “I’ve always liked Christian and felt he had a good head on his shoulders. He’ll do the right thing by my son and it gives you someone to lean on, Jared.”

 

Jared was about to reply when the phone rang at that moment and Alan got up to answer it. It was the hospital calling to let them know that Jensen was awake and was apparently being quite vocal and could Jared please come down immediately.

 

As quickly as possible, the Ackles family and Jared head back to the hospital. Donna and Alan are walking ahead of Jared and MacKenzie and reach Jensen’s room just as a tray of food suddenly came flying through the door and smacked against the opposite wall. Jensen’s voice could be heard yelling within the room. 

 

“I said I wasn’t fucking hungry, I just want coffee! Can’t you listen to anything!”

 

Alan storms into the room to see his son sitting up in bed looking indignant and sneering. A flustered nurse is trying to pick up the mess created by his son. “Jensen Ross Ackles what the hell has gotten in to you!” he hollers. 

 

Jensen looks over as Donna and MacKenzie file into the room behind Alan. Jared decided it would be best if he stayed out of sight for the moment and paused just outside the door.

 

“Gee, I don’t know dad,” he shoots back sarcastically. “Maybe it has something to do with waking up in a hospital with no one around that I know and a bunch of strangers treating me like I’m an idiot.”

 

“Well that shouldn’t be surprising since its only idiots that drive when their shitfaced drunk and wrap their own cars around trees,” MacKenzie shot back.

 

“That’s enough, both of you!” Donna reprimanded. 

 

Jared shook his head at the tone of everyone in the room. As he looked away, he saw Dr. Brezina heading towards him. He quickly moved to catch the doctor. 

 

“Good morning, Mr. . .uhm, Jared,” Dr. Brezina greeted. “I understand my patient is being difficult this morning.”

 

Jared nodded. “Yeah. His family is in there with him right now. Do me a favor doc, don’t let on that I’m out here. I’m kinda waiting for the right moment to go into the room.”

 

Dr. Brezina frowned at the request, but agreed. “Very well.” With that, he headed into Jensen’s room.

 

tbc


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

 

“Good morning everyone,” he greeted as he breezed into the room and went straight to Jensen’s bedside. “Mr. Ackles, I’m Dr. Brezina. I’ve been your attending physician since you were admitted last night.”

 

Jensen snorted. “Yeah, well you can just un-admit me and let me outta here,” he demanded. 

 

“I’m afraid I can’t do that just yet, Mr. Ackles. I need to make sure that the amount of alcohol you consumed yesterday doesn’t create any complications with the severity of the concussion you suffered,” the doctor explained. “If I see no complications, I can see about releasing you tomorrow.”

 

Jensen shoved the doctor’s hands away as he started the examination. “Obviously, you misunderstood me, doc,” Jensen reiterated. “I’m not dizzy, nauseous, seeing double, or in any type of pain. I’m perfectly fine and am going home. Now you can either release me formally, or I’ll just check myself out AMA and walk out the doors on my own.”

 

As Jensen’s family began to argue against him, Jared decided it was time for Jensen to know he was there. He quietly walked in and stood behind the doctor, not saying a word. It wasn’t long before Jensen spotted his friend. 

 

“JARED! Thank God you’re here. Get me outta this place right now!” Jensen demanded. 

 

Jared looked down at his friend, happy to see him awake and obviously feeling better. However, he was just as unhappy to see his friend acting the way he was. “What’s the big rush Jen? Let the doctor check you over and make sure everything is okay.”

 

Jensen rolled his eyes. “I’m fine Jay. I don’t need checking over.”

 

Jared pursed his lips and nodded. “You’re fine, huh? So fine that you wrapped your truck around a tree last night and completely totaled it. You’re fine even though you were covered in your own blood last night from a hole in your head!” Jared’s voice got progressively louder with each word. “You’re just so fine that you were unconscious for an entire day and only just woke up what, a few minutes ago?”

 

Everyone in the room stayed still as they listened to the normally jovial young man literally ream Jensen out royally for his actions the previous day. Jensen swallowed and looked chastised. 

 

Jensen looked up at Jared and nodded. “Okay, alright. I’ll let the doctor check me over, but then I want to leave. I feel fine now.”

 

Dr. Brezina accepted his cue that it was okay to move forward and continue checking out his patient. “That’s only because you were inebriated when the accident occurred and you’re body stayed relaxed. There is still the possibility that you may be hurt internally and we aren’t aware of it.”

 

Jensen didn’t say word, only sat silently fuming as the doctor made the vague reference to his drinking the other night. When Dr. Brezina finished, he stood up and nodded. 

 

“Well, I would still prefer to keep you in for another 24 hours, however, as you so clearly stated, you do appear to be fine and not suffering any additional aftereffects of the crash. I’ll release you, however I would strongly recommend that you go home and rest at least another day before starting up your usual activities,” the doctor informed him. He held up a hand to stall the comment Jensen was getting ready to make. “I know, I know. You said you feel fine. However, I suspect that once you are upright and start walking around, that concussion is going to remind you why you need to take it easy.”

 

The doctor turned to address Donna and Alan. “I don’t want to write a prescription for any pain killers due to the alcohol, so I would recommend just some Extra Strength Tylenol if he needs to take something.”

 

“I’m getting tired of everyone treating me like I’m a falling down drunk,” Jensen ground out between clenched teeth.”

 

“We’ll discuss this at home,” Alan warned him. Jensen once again rolled his eyes. Mackenzie saw the look and shook her head at her brother. 

 

“Dad, I’ll go bring the car around,” she stated. “I really don’t want to witness any more of this.” Before Alan could agree, she stomped out of the room. 

 

“I’ll have the release papers ready for you to sign in about five minutes, Jared,” Dr. Brezina informed him. “I’ll meet you at the nurse’s station on your way out.”

 

Donna handed a bag to her son. “Here are some clean clothes. I’m afraid your other clothes were ruined.” She looked up at Jared. “We’ll wait outside.” Jared nodded as both of Jensen’s parents left the room. 

 

Jensen watched them leave. Once the door closed behind them, he got up from the bed, weaving slightly as he regained his equilibrium. “What’s their problem?”

 

Jared clenched his jaw before answering. “They’ve been worried about you Jens.”

 

Jensen sat back down on the bed so he could pull his jeans on. “What’s up with the whole having the papers ready for you to sign,” he wanted to know. 

 

“Did you forget about the Medical Power of Attorney’s we have for each other?” Jared reminded him. “Apparently, the hospital here is abiding by that even though it was filed in Canada. I’ve had to make the medical decisions on your behalf.”

 

Jensen just finished pulling on a t-shirt, when a knock sounded on the door and his dad poked his head around. “You have some company. Someone needs to speak with you before you leave the hospital.”

 

“This can’t wait until I get home?” Jensen wanted to know. 

 

Alan only shook his head and opened the door. Alan and Donna came through followed by two men, one Jensen recognized as his parent’s attorney Tom Inman. The other gentleman he didn’t know. 

 

“Jensen, I’m glad to see you’re doing much better today,” Tom greeted as they shook hands. 

 

“Thanks,” Jensen returned. “I’m actually getting ready to check out and head home. Can this wait until we get there?”

 

Tom looked over at the other man and shook his head. “I’m afraid not Jensen.” He gestured to the man next to him. “This is Greg Nelon. He is the assistant to Judge Schmidt. The judge was assigned your case.”

 

“My case?” Jensen questioned. “What case?”

 

“If I may?” Nelon asked. At Tom’s nod, Nelon moved forward and handed some papers to Jensen. “Mr. Ackles, you were involved in an automobile accident that resulted in the loss of your car. While there was no other property damage, or any other persons harmed in this accident, you are still facing charges of driving while intoxicated.”

 

“So, I’ll pay the fine and be done with it,” Jensen countered. He didn’t see the problem.

 

“I’m afraid this isn’t Hollywood, Jensen,” Tom replied. “Judge Schmidt has a very tough stance on drunk driving, even if it is a first offense. I’ve spent most of yesterday with Mr. Nelon trying to work out a compromise that the judge would agree to that would keep you out of jail.”

 

Jared shared a look with Donna and Alan, but none of them said a word. They were all waiting to see how Tom was going to pull this off.

 

“So what did you finally come up with?” Jensen asked as he sat down on the bed.

 

Mr. Nelon pulled some papers together. “The normal sentence handed down by the judge for first time offenders is 90 days in jail, with no bond posted and a $25,000 fine.”

 

“I can’t go to jail!” Jensen paled. “I have to be back in Vancouver in 60 days.”

 

Tom nodded. “I know Jensen. That’s where the agreement comes in. I managed to convince the judge that because this is your first and only offense, the jail term is a bit harsh. I told him you would agree to pay the fine and tried for community service instead.”

 

Jensen looked hopeful. “Yeah? I can do that. What did he say?”

 

Tom cleared his throat. “I’m afraid the judge’s only response was he can either do the 90 days in jail, or he’ll have to sign up for, and successfully complete an alcohol rehabilitation program.”

 

Jensen snorted. “So all I have to do is sign up for AA? That’s no biggie.”

 

“I’m afraid not,” Nelon interrupted. “The type of rehab program the judge is referring to is a minimum of eight weeks in length and it must start tomorrow. If you can’t get into one by tomorrow, you’ll need to be incarcerated until a place can be found.”

 

“EIGHT WEEKS!” Jensen squeaked out. “But . . . but that’s almost the entire hiatus.” He looked over at his parents and Jared, hoping to get some support from them. He was disappointed to see that none of them appeared to move to help him.

 

“So has a place been picked out yet, or do I have to go directly to jail,” Jensen spat out angrily.

 

Tom reached into his briefcase and handed him a brochure. “I was able to pull some strings and got you registered into this place first thing tomorrow morning. You’re father has all the details and they can bring you.”

 

Mr. Nelon started to leave, but turned back to face Jensen. “Mr. Ackles, you should know that the courts will be calling the clinic by noon tomorrow. If you have not checked in by then, a warrant will be issued for your arrest, the deal will be cancelled and you’ll be sent directly to jail.” He turned and left the room before anyone could say anything. 

 

Jensen sat down on the bed once more and looked at the brochure in his hands. Tom stole a quick moment to wink at the Ackles and Jared, all who nodded their thanks. Tom turned back to face the young man. “I’m sorry Jensen. I really tried hard to get you off with just the fine. This judge is really harsh and takes a very negative view of anyone that tries to use their social standing or celebrity status to get out of trouble they get into.” He chuckled. “You should hear what he has to say about what he’d do to Lohan if she ever showed up in his courtroom.” He cleared his throat. “In any case, I tried and this is the best I could do to keep you from having to go to jail.”

 

Jensen only nodded. Tom bade goodbye to Alan, Donna and Jared and left the room. 

 

“Well, I’m sure that the doctor is ready for us now,” Donna spoke up. “Shall we head out?”

 

Jensen only stood up and left the room, not saying a word to anyone. He stormed past the nurse’s station and headed outside to his father’s waiting car. Jared stopped at the station and signed the necessary papers. Once that was done and they were ready to leave, he placed himself between Donna and Alan and wrapped his arms around their shoulders.

 

“Well, the worst part is over,” he assured them. “Now, we just have to wait for his explosion.”

 

“Just great,” Alan groaned. “Might as well head home and get it over with.”

 

The three joined Jensen and Mackenzie in the car and they drove off. Jensen refused to acknowledge anyone in the car, choosing to stare at the passing scenery while thinking about what his life was about to become. He got angrier the more he thought about it and realized that neither his family, nor Jared, gave any protests over what was decided for him. 

 

As Mackenzie pulled the car into the driveway of the home, Jensen stormed out of the car and waited impatiently at the door for his mother to come and unlock it. Once that was done, with feet pounding on the floor, Jensen walked heavily into the living room. 

 

“I can’t believe this fucking crap!” Jensen shouted as he threw his coat across the room. “Where in the hell does that judge get off thinking I’m some sort of staggering alcoholic. I don’t need rehab.”

 

“That’s enough Jensen,” Alan ordered. “Just because you’re angry does not give you the right to use that kind of language. You know how your mother feels about it.”

 

Jensen snorted. “Yeah, right, whatever.”

 

“Jensen, it’s better than being stuck in jail for three months,” Alan tried to reason with his son. “Can you imagine what the media would do if that ever got out?”

 

“Like I give a shit what the media thinks,” Jensen shot back. “Big fucking deal. I either get three months of jail time or two months of rehab. Both sound the same to me.” He grabbed the brochure for the rehab center that was about to become his home for the next eight weeks. Glancing through it quickly, he snorted at the terms and conditions. “No visitors whatsoever, no phone calls or mail for the first five weeks. Then, if I’m lucky and be a good little boy, they’ll let me start having limited visitations with family.” He threw down the brochure. “And this is different from jail how?”

 

“At least at the rehab center you won’t have inmates wanting a piece of your ass!” Mackenzie shouted out, her anger at her brother’s attitude finally getting the better of her.”

 

“Mackenzie!” Donna cried out in shock.

 

“I’m sorry Mom,” MacKenzie apologized to her mom but turned her anger back at her brother. “But damn it Jensen! Can’t you see everyone is just trying to help you here? Can’t you even try and meet us halfway on this?”

 

“Why should I?” demanded Jensen. “Everyone here seems to think I’ve got a problem except me.” Jensen shook his head at his family. Swiping his palm over his face, he turned from them. “I need a drink.”

 

He headed for the wet bar, only to be blocked by Jared who had suddenly stood up, knowing what Jensen was going to want to do. 

 

“Get out of my way Jared,” Jensen demanded. Jared only shook his head. Jensen huffed in disbelief. “I don’t believe this. My best friend is siding with my parents over this. Thanks a lot, Jared.”

 

“I’m not siding with anyone over this, Jensen,” Jared simply stated. “Look at you! It’s only 11:30 in the morning and you’re already needing a drink. You need to be thinking clearly right now.” 

 

Jensen stepped back a few paces and shook his head at Jared. He then looked over at his family, his parents, both of whom had determined looks in their eyes and Jensen knew he wasn’t going to be able to get out of this.

 

“Fine!” he huffed angrily as he stomped towards the stairs. “What time does my prison sentence start?”

 

“We have to be there by 10am,” Alan responded. 

 

“I’ll be in my room. Might as well get used to being in confined spaces,” he muttered as he walked away from them.

 

Once the door to his room slammed shut, everyone sighed and sat down in the living room. Alan looked at everyone and could see they were all wondering if they were doing the right thing. 

 

“I can tell what ya’ll are thinking,” he spoke up. “We’re doing right by him, trust me. If we don’t nip this problem in the bud right now, it will only get worse and be ten times harder to get control over at a later time.”

 

“You’re right dear,” Donna agreed. She looked over at Jared. “I’m so sorry we had to put you in this middle of this Jared.”

 

Jared smiled softly at her. “Don’t apologize Mama Ackles. I want to help him too. I’d like to get my friend back and if this is the only way to do so . . .” he trailed off. 

 

Jared’s cell phone rang at that moment and he checked the caller ID and noted it was his father calling. He excused himself and went out in the back yard to talk to him.

 

“Hey Dad,” he greeted. “Sorry I haven’t had the chance to call you back.”

 

“It’s okay son. Your mother told me what happened. How is Jensen?” Jared’s father asked. 

 

“He’s okay. We brought him home just a bit ago. He’s upstairs in his room resting.”

 

“That’s good to hear. I’m glad he’s okay.”

 

“Well . . .” Jared hesitated. “Not exactly Dad.”

 

“What’s going on Jared? What happened?”

 

Jared quickly outlined the entire story, including the fact that Jensen would be in rehab for the next eight weeks. He sighed as he finished bringing his father up to date.

 

“I take it then you called because you want me to institute the clause in Jensen’s contract with me about his finances?” his father wanted to know. 

 

“Yes and no, Dad,” Jared admitted. “I’ve talked with Donna and Alan about this already. Dad, I’m already going to be responsible for the medical decisions involving Jensen’s care. Not that I wouldn’t make any decision without first letting his parents know about it,” Jared reiterated. “It’s just, I’m going to have my hands full with that and I really don’t want to be responsible for Jensen’s money. I’ve asked Donna and Alan to do that and said you could easily transfer the responsibility over to them. They’ve agreed to it.”

 

“That’s a good idea son. When your mother told me what was going on, I sorta expected something like this to happen. I’ve already had some paperwork started and I signed them and sent them up to Charlie’s office in Dallas.”

 

Jared knew Charlie was sort of his father’s partner in the business in that he handled the clients that were in North Texas so his father wouldn’t have to travel too much. “So I just need to run over to Charlie’s office and pick them up? Then what?”

 

“Not exactly son. Charlie will messenger the papers over to the house. Have the Ackles sign and date them right away with yesterday’s date on it. Make sure they do it before Jensen goes into the rehab center. Once you get him admitted, you can take the papers back to Charlie’s office and he’ll file them with all the necessary parties. I’ll call Alan in a few days and let him know when everything is done and how they can access Jensen’s records to keep track of it all. 

 

Jared sighed in relief before suddenly remembering something. “Oh and Dad? Make sure and freeze all his accounts and the joint credit cards. Danneel has been out on a spending spree with some friends for the past few days. She doesn’t even know Jensen was in the hospital.”

 

“I’ve already started on it,” Gerry assured his son. “That’s why I need you to get the Ackles to sign the papers right away. The bank and credit card companies will agree to a temporary freeze, but I have to fax over some of the signed paperwork to them within 48 hours or else they’ll reopen the accounts. If you get them to Charlie, he can do so right away. Are you coming back home before you leave for LA?”

 

Jared thought for a moment. “Yeah, I’m going to come back for a few days. I’ll probably drive back after we get Jensen settled in at the rehab center tomorrow. I have a feeling the Ackles are going to need my support for that and I don’t want to leave them high and dry.”

 

“That’s a good plan son. I’m proud of you for sticking with the family to help them out. Tell Donna that Sherri is planning on coming up to see Josh over the weekend and she’ll stop by and visit. She wants to make sure Donna and Mackenzie are doing okay and if she can help in anyway.”

 

Jared smiled and blinked back the tears that quickly formed. His heart warmed at how his family was so willing to help out the Ackles in their time of need. “I will Dad. Thanks for taking care of this. I know Jensen will thank you for it to, once he’s thinking clearly again.”

 

“It’s what friends are for son. Friends and family. Don’t you forget it,” Gerri lightly chastised his son.

 

“I won’t Dad. Thanks again. I’ll see you and mom sometime tomorrow,” Jared said his goodbyes and finished his call. 

 

Walking back into the Ackles living room, he noted that Donna, Alan and Mackenzie were still sitting in the same spots as when he left. 

 

“Uhm, that was my dad. His partner here in Dallas is going to be sending over some paperwork by messenger that you need to sign right away,” Jared explained. “It’s to do with turning over responsibility of Jensen’s finances from me to you.” He glanced at the stairwell when he mentioned this, making sure that Jensen couldn’t overhear them.

 

Alan nodded. “Okay. Donna and I will take care of it. Do we give them back to you?”

 

Jared nodded. “Yeah. After we admit Jensen tomorrow, I’ll drop them off with Charlie and he’ll get them filed and taken care of. I’ll be heading back down to San Antonio after that. Oh and my dad said to tell you, Donna, that my mom is coming up this weekend to visit with Josh. She’s planning on stopping by to visit with you, if that’s okay?”

 

Donna smiled. “That’s perfect sweetie. I haven’t seen your mom in a few months. It’ll be nice to catch up with her.”

 

Jared smiled at her and joined the family as Alan turned on the television. Jensen never came down from his room, even when called for supper. As promised, the papers were delivered from Gerry Padalecki’s partner in Dallas. Donna and Alan signed off on them immediately and Jared took them up to the guest room to get them out of sight. He would deliver them after they dropped Jensen off tomorrow. 

 

Jared tried to get in to see him as the family went up to bed but Jensen only told Jared to go away and leave him alone. With a heavy heart, Jared went to his room to go to bed.

 

***** 

 

The next morning dawned cloudy and grey outside, seemingly to match the mood of everyone inside the Ackles homestead. Even though Donna offered, no one felt like eating breakfast and only settled for coffee. Donna, Alan, Mackenzie and Jared sat at the dining room table making small talk, passing the time away until they had to leave for the clinic. 

 

At 9:00, Jensen came down the stairs carrying a duffel bag. He paused only long enough to look at everyone sitting at the table, then turned away and headed outside and climbed into the car. Alan sighed heavily.

 

“Guess we should go then,” he commented. They all grabbed their coats and headed outside. 

 

Donna turned to offer Jared the front seat, knowing it would be more comfortable for him with his long legs. Jared quietly climbed into the back seat so he would be sitting next to Jensen. Jensen only offered him a glare before turning back to the window and ignoring everyone else in the car. 

 

Several times throughout the ride to the clinic, Jared pressed his leg against Jensen’s, his way of letting his friend know he was there for him and had his back. Jensen only pulled his leg away and squished himself closer to the door. After it happened for the third time, Jared gave up and sat back saying nothing. 

 

Jensen tensed as Alan turned the car into the driveway of the clinic. They drove through a set of decorative iron gates, but Jensen didn’t miss the heavy locks and remote security cameras sitting atop the gates. He frowned and shook his head.

 

Alan pulled the car up underneath the carport cover to the front entrance and they all got out. Donna led the way through the front doors and they were met almost immediately by a distinguished looking gentleman. 

 

“Ackles family?” the man greeted. 

 

Alan nodded and shook hands with the man. “Yes. I’m Alan; this is my wife Donna, our daughter Mackenzie.” He then gestured to Jensen. “This is my son Jensen and his best friend Jared.”

 

“Dr. David Mouton,” the man returned the greeting. Even though Jensen shook his hand, the doctor could easily see the disinterested look in his patient’s eyes. “Jensen, I’ll be your therapist and main medical contact during your stay with us.”

 

Jensen shrugged and turned his back on the group as he looked around the lobby area. 

 

Dr. Mouton turned to Jared. “Would you by chance be Jared Pad . . Padlacki?”

 

“Padalecki,” Jared corrected him. “But please, just call me Jared.” He handed the doctor some papers. “Here is the paperwork from Dr. Brezina and it includes my contact information.”

 

“Jared it is,” Mouton agreed. “I’ll be sending you email updates of Jensen’s progress on a weekly basis, unless you’d like them more often than that.”

 

Jared shook his head. “No, once a week is fine.” He noted that Jensen overheard the conversation and was now glaring harshly at him.

 

“Very well,” Dr. Mouton nodded. “All seems to be in order, so I’ll just let ya’ll say goodbye to Jensen.” He gestured to an orderly standing off to the side. “Michael will show you to your room when you’re done, Jensen.” He turned and left, leaving the small family group standing alone. 

 

Jensen walked up to Jared once the doctor was gone. “You son of a bitch!”

 

Jared looked at his friend in shock. “Wha…a..t?”

 

Jensen fumed. “You heard me you bastard. You think I didn’t hear what the doctor said? You think I don’t know that it’s probably all your fault that this is being done to me? What the hell kind of a friend are you?”

 

“The kind that only wants what’s best for you Jensen,” Jared pleaded. “I love you man. But I’m not going to just stand off to the side and let you slowly destroy yourself in this way.”

 

Jensen’s anger burst at that moment and before anyone could stop him, he raised his fist and punched Jared hard across the cheek. Jared staggered back and grabbed his face. 

 

“JENSEN!” Alan cried out and ran over to his son and grabbed him. He waved the orderly off who had come running over. “What is wrong with you?”

 

Jared still held his cheek as he turned and looked at Jensen in disbelief. “What was that for!” he demanded to know. 

 

Jensen ignored his question. He walked right up to Jared and jabbed him in the chest. “Get out of my sight! I hate you for doing this to me. I never, ever want to have anything to do with you again. As soon as I can, I’m calling Eric and breaking my contract. I’m through with you and Supernatural.” He smirked. “I can imagine that once the news hits that I dropped out of the show, you’re career will pretty much be tanked. Everyone knows I’m the big draw.”

 

Jared only swallowed hard and tried to keep the tears at bay. “You don’t mean that,” he whispered. 

 

“You are such an ass!” Mackenzie yelled at her brother. 

 

Jensen glared at her. “I’M an ass? Why? Because no one here wants to hear the truth? That if it wasn’t for me carrying this overgrown child through all those seasons, the show never would have gotten this far?”

 

A loud slap rang through the lobby as Mackenzie reached up and slapped her brother across the cheek. She turned away from him in time to see Jared running out the door. “I hope you’re happy with yourself,” she scolded him.

 

“Save your platitudes,” Jensen told Mackenzie. 

 

“You don’t deserve any,” she shot back. “Frankly, with the way you’ve been acting over this whole thing, I hope it’s the most difficult eight weeks you ever have to live through. Maybe then you’ll realize that your actions affect people other than yourself.” She turned and ran after Jared.

 

Alan walked up to Jensen. “You are hating us now son, but trust me. When this is all done, you’ll thank us for this.”

 

Jensen snorted. “Whatever. You just keep on thinking that dad.” Alan shook his head in despair and stepped off to the side. 

 

Donna came over next and Jensen at least made the attempt to comfort her. “Mom, please. Don’t leave me here,” he whispered frantically. “I’m not an alcoholic! I don’t need to be here. You know that!”

 

Donna calmly cupped her youngest son’s cheek and rubbed her thumb across his cheek. “Maybe you’re not Jensen. Not yet. But please sweetheart. If you don’t want to do this for yourself, than do it for me? I just want my baby boy back to the sweet person he always was.”

 

Realizing his mother wasn’t going to help, Jensen only stepped back and shook his head at her. Donna sniffled and she too quickly walked over to join her husband. He watched as his parents walked out the door, neither of them looking back at him.

 

Everyone climbed back into the car and Alan drove off. As they moved through the gates and turned into traffic, Mackenzie spoke up. 

 

“Anyone else find it kinda strange that he never once mentioned Danneel?”

 

No one said a word.

 

tbc


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

 

“Well, I think I’ve got everything,” Jared announced as he joined the family in the kitchen later that afternoon. 

 

Before anyone can respond, the sound of the front door slamming shut catches their attention and Donna shoots Alan a puzzled look. “Who could that be?” she wondered. 

 

“JENSEN!” Danneel’s voice rang out loud and angry from the front room. “Where the hell are you!”

 

“There is no need for screaming, Danneel,” Donna chastised her daughter-in-law as she walked in from the kitchen. “And definitely no need for that kind of language in this house.”

 

“I’ll scream as loud as I want to,” Danni shot back. She dropped her multitude of shopping bags on the floor and put her hands on her hips. “Where the hell is Jensen?”

 

“If you expect an answer to your question, young lady, you’ll lower your voice and address Donna in a respectful manner,” Alan warned her.

 

Danneel huffed angrily, but quieted down. “Fine. Can anyone tell me where my husband is? I need to speak with him immediately.”

 

“He’s not here,” Donna vaguely told her. “Is there a problem?”

 

“YES, there is a problem!” Danneel dug in her purse and pulled out a little bag and upended it on the living room floor. Bits of plastic fluttered down on the carpet. “My credit card was chopped up in front of me! I was told that the card had been cancelled. I was completely humiliated in front of all my friends. ”

 

Alan ran his toe through the pile. “Perhaps you finally charged up to the limit?” he suggested. 

 

Danneel rolled her eyes and huffed once again. “It wasn’t anywhere near the limit. Jensen paid it off less than week ago.”

 

“Why did Jensen pay off your credit card bill?” Donna innocently asked. 

 

“It’s our joint credit card,” Danneel replied sarcastically. “So when will Jensen be back so I can ask him why this happened?”

 

Alan pursed his lips and appeared to be thinking. “Oh, he should be back here in about eight weeks.”

 

“WHAT?” Danneel exclaimed. “He flew back to LA and didn’t call me?”

 

Mackenzie joined everyone and handed Danneel her cell phone. “Pretty hard for him to call you when you left your phone here and he had no clue where you were.”

 

“Oh that’s just lovely,” Danneel was exasperated. “I can’t believe he would do that to me.”

 

Donna looked over at Alan and nodded. He nodded back at his wife, then turned and gestures for Mackenzie to leave the room. Once his daughter was gone, he addressed his daughter-in-law.

 

“He didn’t fly back to Los Angeles, Danneel,” Alan began. He put up a hand to stall any comments. “Before you say one word, listen to me, and listen to me really good. While you were out shopping, your husband was involved in an accident and totaled his car.”

 

“How bad was he hurt? Is he still in the hospital?” Danneel appeared worried. 

 

“Luckily, he wasn’t hurt badly,” Donna took up the story. “The fact that he was completely drunk and his reflexes were too slow to be of any use was probably what saved his life.”

 

“What are you talking about?” Danneel demanded. 

 

“I take it you left with your friend right after Steve’s concert?” Alan questioned. Danneel nodded. “The same concert where ya’ll were doing a lot of heavy drinking?” Again Danneel nodded, but this time she lifted her chin to him up daring him to say anything about it. Alan ignored it. “Well, apparently Jensen was too drunk to be driving and he wrapped his truck around a tree. Luckily no one else was involved in the accident. However, his blood level was three times over the legal limit and he was facing drunk driving charges and some jail time.”

 

Danneel sighed. “So that’s where he is? Sitting in jail. How much is his bail and when can I get him out?”

 

Alan snorted. “This isn’t Hollywood Danneel. The judges here in Texas are a bit harsher with their penalties when it comes to drunk driving. Even though it was Jensen’s first offense, the judge did not let him off so easy.”

 

“What does that mean?” she wanted to know. 

 

“Our attorney managed to work out a deal with the judge . . .”

 

Danneel interrupted. “So if you worked out a deal, where is he?”

 

“If you’d let me finish,” Alan chastised her. “As I was going to say, Jensen could avoid serving a three month jail sentence, if he agreed instead to go through an alcohol rehab program.”

 

Danneel snorted. “Rehab! He’s not an alcoholic.”

 

“His lab results say otherwise,” Donna pointed out. “And after discussing the situation with the doctor, we felt it was in his best interest to have him start the rehab program immediately.”

 

“YOU felt it was best?” Danneel questioned. “How the hell could any of you make that determination? I’M his wife. Why wasn’t I consulted in any of this.”

 

“Because the doctor was bound, by law, to notify and discuss the situation with the person listed on Jensen’s medical power of attorney,” Alan explained. 

 

“What power of attorney?” Danneel asked. “He doesn’t have one, at least I don’t remember ever signing one.”

 

“You didn’t,” Donna told her. 

 

“Well if I didn’t, and it’s obvious neither of you did, then who the hell holds that title?”

 

Jared, who had been listening in on the conversation from the kitchen finally made his presence known to her. “That would be me.”

 

Danneel turned towards the voice. Seeing that it was Jared, she glared at him. “I might have known. No matter what I do, I just can’t get you out of my life.”

 

“I’ve never been in your life Danni. It’s Jensen’s life I’m a part of and one that you, unfortunately, share,” Jared did not let her attitude ruffle him. He was well versed in how she argued and knew that staying calm and collected only made her angrier. 

 

“Whatever,” Danneel waved off his statement. “I just want to know where he is so I can go and get him and get the situation resolved.”

 

Jared pursed his lips and shook his head. “Not gonna happen, and before you start yelling and screaming at everyone here, you might as well know that there is nothing that you can do about it. The Medical Power of Attorney is a court filed, court approved document in two countries. There is no way you can ever hope to fight it and win.”

 

“Just where the hell does this leave me then?” she ground out her question between clenched teeth. 

 

“It leaves you pretty much with nothing but your own belongings,” Alan told her. “While Jensen is in rehab, his mother and I have taken over responsibility of his finances and his real estate. At our request, Jensen’s personal credit cards and bank accounts have been frozen.” He put up a hand to stall the remarks he knew Danneel was about to make. “With the help of Jensen’s financial advisor, we viewed the spending habits of your joint card and saw that it was mainly being used to pay the household expenses. With a listing of all those expenses, the bank has agreed that any charges that try to come through that are not directly related to the household expenses, will be denied.”

 

“You can’t do that!” Danneel was furious. “Half of the money in that account is mine!”

 

Donna walked over and handed her a piece of paper. “Yes, and judging from the printout of the last month and showing how much money was deposited and which one of you put it in there, it appears that you’ve already managed to burn through your money. So the card was frozen to protect Jensen’s money.”

 

Danneel balled up the paper and threw it across the room. “I’ll get my lawyers on this. You can’t do this to us.”

 

Alan handed her some more papers. “I wouldn’t throw these away,” he cautioned her. “Your lawyers will probably need to see these if you intend on doing so.”

 

Danneel glanced through them quickly and saw there were copies of the court filed documents listing Jared as having power of attorney over all medical matters concerning Jensen, and the Ackles for all his finances. Danneel’s lip curled in a sneer when she saw the name of the financial consultant. 

 

“Isn’t this just convenient for all of you that the person giving you all this advice is Jared’s father!”

 

Jared shrugged. “It shouldn’t come as a surprise to you Danneel. You’ve known that for some time.”

 

“Fine,” Danneel admitted defeat in this. “At least tell me where he is so I can go and visit.”

 

Jared shook his head. “No can do. The rehab center has a no visitor’s policy for the first five weeks. He can’t receive any visitors, or get any phone calls.”

 

“I have to wait FIVE WEEKS!” Danneel huffed. “How the hell am I supposed survive until he gets out of rehab?”

 

“How did you manage before you were married? You weren’t living off of him then, so why should you have to do so now?” Donna wanted to know. 

 

“That’s none of your business,” Danneel told her. 

 

“Well, I’m making it my business Danneel,” Donna stood her ground. “From the first day my son brought you here I tried to see what he ever saw in you for his sake. When you two started getting serious, I prayed that nothing would ever come of it.” She paused and looked over at Jared, shooting him a look of apology. “The worst day I ever had was the day my son told us that you and he were going to get married. But again, I never said a word because he appeared to be happy. But after all this time, I’ve not seen one sign that the son I raised is even in that person anymore. You have changed him, and not for the better.”

 

“Well, there’s nothing that you can do about that, is there?” Danneel snidely responded. 

 

Isn’t there?” Donna challenged. “I can only hope that when my son comes out of rehab that his eyes have been opened to what has happened to his life and he takes action to correct it. And so, I’m going to start taking the steps now to make that happen. If it doesn’t,” she shrugged indifferently. “If it does however, than the work will have already been started.”

 

“Meaning what?” Danneel wanted to know. 

 

“Meaning that if God is on my side, you won’t be my daughter-in-law for much longer,” Donna flatly told her. “Now I would suggest you go upstairs and pack and get out of this house.”

 

Furious, Danneel turned to look at everyone and only saw indifference in their eyes. Moving to go upstairs, she had to pass Jared to do so. Before she walked past him, she turned to look once more at the family, turned back to Jared and smacked him across the face. 

 

“This is all your fault, you overgrown child,” she shouted. “You just couldn’t let him go, could you? Couldn’t let him have the kind of life he was meant to have, to be happy with me. You are nothing but a selfish, self-centered asshole and I am going to do everything I can to make your life miserable!”

 

“If Jensen’s true happiness means I have to be all that, fine,” Jared spoke softly. “But let me warn you Danneel. Don’t forget about your prenup agreement. I may not know all the details on it, but if you go shouting your mouth off to anyone about all this, I’m pretty sure you’re stand to lose an awful lot.”

 

Jared knew he hit a sore spot when he saw Danneel’s face turn red and she stormed out of the room. 

 

Not having really unpacked, it took Danneel no time at all to throw her clothes into her suitcase and come down the stairs, her rolling suitcase banging against all the steps on the way down. No one paid her any attention until she got to the front door.

 

“Can someone drive me to the airport? Where did all my shopping bags go?” Danneel demanded. 

 

Mackenzie opened the front door at that moment, almost hitting Danneel with it. She pointed to another suitcase that was sitting on the front porch. “I’ve put your shopping bags all in there. It’s my own suitcase, but I’ll gladly give it up if it means getting you out of my brother’s life.”

 

“I’ll make sure he gets it back to you,” Danneel sneered. “Now, if you want me gone so badly, will someone give me a ride to the airport or one of the hotels nearby?”

 

A horn sounded from the street at that moment and a taxi cab pulled up into the driveway. 

 

“I believe your chariot awaits,” Mackenzie replied snidely.

 

Danneel only huffed, but grabbed the handles on both suitcases and headed towards the cab. Mackenzie stood on the front porch until the cab pulled away and out of sight. She turned and went back into the house, seeking out everyone who had moved back into the kitchen.

 

“Ding dong the witch is gone,” Mackenzie sang as she joined them. Jared snorted into his cup of coffee.

 

“That’s enough young lady,” Donna chastised her. She looked over at her husband. “Do you think she’ll cause any problems?”

 

“I wouldn’t put it past her. I think I’ll give Tom a call and give him a heads up on all this,” Alan replied. He paused just before he left the room and turned to Jared. “Maybe you’d better let Eric know what’s happening Jared. Just as a precaution.”

 

Jared nodded and looked at his watch. “I will. Eric has a standing meeting every day at this time. I’ll call his office in a bit and let him know. I think I’m just going to go ahead and head on over to Jeff’s house now.”

 

“Do you have to leave?” Mackenzie asked. “If your mom is coming over this weekend, couldn’t you stay until then?”

 

Jared hugged her, knowing that everything she’d been through the past few days was probably catching up to her and not having Josh around, and now Jensen gone, she needed a big brother. 

 

“Yeah kiddo, I do. Not that I’m including ya’ll in this but I’ve kinda taken all the hits from the Ackles family I can for right now,” he teased. “I don’t have any more cheeks for anyone to hit.”

 

Donna hugged him. “I’m so sorry for all that sweetie. You know it’s just the effects of the alcohol that was talking with Jensen. He never meant any of it.”

 

Jared nodded. “I know. It’s just been a rough few days and I need some time to think before I have to head back to LA.”

 

“We understand,” Donna assured him. She hugged him once again, tears coming to her eyes. “Thank you so much for all your help Jared. You’ve been a Godsend through all this.”

 

Alan pats him on the shoulder. “Definitely. I think sometimes you were the only thing keeping Jensen from going off the deep end.”

 

“You’re momma raised you right young man,” Donna teased him. Jared blushed with the praise, but said nothing. 

 

“I’ll be at Jeff’s house until my folks come up this weekend. I’ll probably fly back on Sunday,” Jared explained. “If you guys need anything, just call me okay? If I can’t get here fast enough, I’ll see if Jeff can help you out.”

 

“We will,” Alan promised. They all followed Jared to the front door, everyone hugging him one last time before he grabbed his bag and left. 

 

tbc


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

 

Fast forward 2 months – 1 month before they are to head back to Vancouver to start filming Season 7. 

 

It’s early evening and Jared is relaxing after a quick jog with his dogs. After his run, he fed the dogs and grabbed a water bottle from the fridge. Sitting down on the sofa, he grabbed the remote and turned on the television propping his stocking feet up on the coffee table in front of him. 

 

Genevieve, who was sitting in the chair across from him, huffed. “Jared, get your dirty feet off the coffee table please.”

 

Jared frowned and looked at his feet. “My socks are clean.”

 

“You need to take a shower,” she sniffed and wrinkled her nose. “You smell like a locker room.”

 

“Well, I’m sorry,” he replied sarcastically. “I haven’t taken a shower after my run. Thought I’d sit down and relax for a bit. I’ve been running non-stop lately and I’m tired.”

 

“I can’t possibly imagine why,” Gen responds as she rolls her eyes. “I mean, it’s not like you’ve been filming anything. You just spend all your time talking to either Eric, or Chris or any of the Ackles.”

 

“That’s not true and you know it,” he shot back. “I did the publicity photo shoot for season 7 and had to do the convention here all by myself.”

 

“Oh yes, that,” Genevieve stood up. “Hundreds of fans asking you constantly why Jensen wasn’t there and you doing absolutely nothing but feeding them a bunch of lies.”

 

“What would you want me to do? Tell them the truth!” Jared was getting angry. “What exactly is your problem anyway?”

 

“What’s MY problem? I’ll tell you what my problem is, it’s you. For the past five weeks, we have done absolutely nothing together. We were supposed to go to Sun Valley for my parents wedding anniversary but we didn’t because you had something going on. Then, you promised me we would fly up to San Francisco to visit with my mom, but you backed out of that to do the convention. Every night you’ve been either on the phone or sending out emails to everyone giving them updates on Jensen’s condition,” she ranted. “Hell, you have your cell phone with you when you go to the bathroom for Christ sakes!”

 

Jared stood up. “Now you just hold on a minute. I told you to go ahead and go to Sun Valley and I would follow later in the day. You’re the one that said to forget it if we couldn’t fly out together. And yes, I promised you I’d go to San Francisco, but when you told me what weekend it was I reminded you about the convention. YOU were the one that forgot and said you would reschedule the visit, but you didn’t. You went up there by yourself. And of course I have to keep in touch with everyone. I’m the only person getting the medical updates on Jensen and he has people that want to know how he’s doing. So excuse me if I haven’t been at your beck and call 24/7.”

 

He huffed and turned away from her. “You know Gen, sometimes I think the only reason why you married me was to flaunt our marriage in front of the fans.”

 

“Just what the hell is that supposed to mean?” she demanded to know. 

 

“It means that throughout our marriage, everything has always been about you. Oh sure, you’ve happily been at my side at conventions or at Comic Con or anywhere else where you can be seen on my arm. But not once have you willingly done anything I’ve wanted to do with my family or friends. You’ve dragged me to every single event in Sun Valley and made sure that your family and friends were aware that I was there with you,” Jared paused. “This is supposed to be a two way street here, but I’ve only ever felt that I was driving one way down Cortese Boulevard.”

 

“So what exactly are you saying?” she had started crying. “Do you want a divorce?”

 

Before Jared could answer, his cell phone rings. Jared goes to answer it and see’s Genevieve just throw up her hands in frustration and storm out of the room.”

 

“Hello?”

 

“Jared, honey its Donna Ackles.”

 

“Hey Donna. How is everything in Dallas?” Jared greets her. 

 

“That’s why I’m calling Jared. We got to go and visit Jensen today.” She told him excitedly.

 

“Yeah? How was he? Did he look okay? Did he ask about me?” Jared rushed with the questions. Donna giggled. 

 

“Slow down and let me answer. He’s doing just great and looks better than he has in a long time.” Jared can hear the happiness in Donna’s voice.”

 

“That’s great Donna. I’m glad to hear that the reports we were getting were the truth. I was kind of afraid there for a bit that Dr. Mouton was making them up to make us feel better.”

 

“I had been thinking the same things myself,” Donna admitted. “But seeing Jensen again, I knew it was all true. I’ve got my baby boy back.”

 

Jared snorted. “Don’t let him hear you calling him that. You know how much he hates that.”

 

Donna chuckled again. “I know, but it’s a mother’s prerogative do to so. Jared, sweetie, listen. The real reason why I called . . . well, Jensen was asking us a lot of questions about you. Alan couldn’t quite grasp what it was Jensen was looking for so he just asked him point blank. Jensen responded that he really wanted to see you and wanted us to call you and let you know that.”

 

Jared sucked in a breath. “He said that? He really wants to see me again?”

 

“Yes. He seemed kind of adamant about it Jared. Listen, I know what he said and did to you the last time you saw each other hurt you,” she confessed. “But I could tell after talking with him that he really was sorry he did it and knows the only way to set things straight again is to talk to you directly.” Donna paused and waited to see if he would say anything. When Jared kept quiet, she continued on. “Jared, if you’d rather not go see him . . .”

 

“Oh no,” he interrupted. “It’s not that Donna, not at all. I guess I’m just kinda surprised that he wants to see me because of what happened the last time.”

 

“I understand Jared, I really do,” Donna agreed with him. “But you’ll have to trust me on this. Going to see Jensen would be the best thing for the both of you.”

 

Jared sighed. “I know. I really want to.” He paused and looked at the door that Genevieve had stormed through. “Donna, can you do me a favor? Call Jensen and tell him I’ll come out and visit the day after tomorrow. I’ve got to take care of some things here first that can’t wait.”

 

“Oh of course sweetie. That’s not a problem, he’ll understand. I think he said something about being a bit busy with some therapy classes himself, so this would probably work out perfectly. I’ll call the center as soon as we hang up and let him know.”

 

“Thanks Donna. That would help me out a lot,” Jared admitted. 

 

“Uhm . . . Jared? This is one more thing I need to ask and I’m kind of . . . well,” Donna sighed.

 

Jared couldn’t help but be curious. “What is it Donna?”

 

“Oh bother!” Donna exclaimed. “Jared, have you seen or been in touch with Danneel in any way since you last saw her here?”

 

Jared’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “No, I mean not directly anyway. I met up with Chris about a week ago at his request. He was getting ready to fly up to Portland the next morning and wanted to catch up with me so he asked if I would meet him at one of Steve’s concerts. Chris and I were in the back of the theater but I saw Danni up front with band. Why? Has she been causing you problems?”

 

“No, not us directly, nor has she tried anything with Jensen’s financial stuff,” Donna explained. “It’s just that, well I wanted to give you a heads up . . . no, scratch that. Jensen will tell you when you see him.”

 

Jared chuckled. “That’s awfully cryptic Donna.”

 

“I know, but if I let the cat out of the bag to you, Jensen would probably be very upset with me. I really don’t want that after just getting him back.”

 

“Alright. I’ll tell you what. After I see Jensen, if you guys are going to be home, I’ll stop by and we can compare notes. I can’t stay for very long, will probably have to fly in and out the same day,” he admitted. 

 

“Oh, don’t worry about coming to visit us then, Jared. It’s not that urgent.”

 

“Are you sure? I really don’t mind?” Jared questioned. 

 

“I’m sure. You’ve done so much for us already. Between you and your parents and Megan helping Mackenzie, well, it’s time we stepped back out of your life for a bit and give you some breathing room,” Donna assured him. 

 

“Donna!” Jared chastised her. “Don’t you guys ever think that you’ve been a burden through any of this. My family was more than happy to be there for ya’ll.” Jared paused as he heard the doorbell ring over the phone. “Now you go and answer your door and don’t give this another thought. Just let Jensen know I’m coming.”

 

“I will. I’ll call him right away. You have a safe trip sweetie. Talk to you soon!” Donna ended the call. 

 

Jared stood still for a moment, thinking about the call. So Jensen was asking to see him. Jared was of two minds on that. He was anxious to see his friend, having not been able to talk to him for the past five weeks. They’ve never gone that long without at least texting something to each other. On the other hand, he was nervous and scared about Jensen’s reaction to seeing him. Donna was right, what Jensen said to him the last time hurt Jared. He knew deep down that Jensen didn’t mean any of what he said, that it was just his reaction to everything that caused him to say it. 

 

Jared walked over to the computer while he had been musing over his thoughts. He knew that no matter what, he would be going to visit his friend. That was a given. He wasn’t just going to throw six years of friendship out of the window without a fight. He only hoped that this time, it wouldn’t actually come to that.

 

Logging onto the computer and checking the flights, Jared saw that he would actually have to catch a flight out of LA tomorrow night in order to be in Dallas early enough to visit Jensen. “Damned time zones” he muttered. He hated flying anywhere East of Los Angeles because of the time difference and the fact that he pretty much loses most of the day in travel because of it. 

 

Scheduling his flights and printing out the electronic tickets, he headed up to the bedroom to start packing. As he’s doing so, Genevieve comes in and see’s what he is doing. 

 

“Leaving again?” she demanded. “Let me guess, you’re needed in Dallas once again by the Ackles.”

 

“Only one Ackles this time,” Jared replied. “Jensen has asked for me to come visit.”

 

“And of course, you’re just going to drop everything and go running. Aren’t you?”

 

Jared sighed and straightened up. He turned to look at her. “Yes. I am. I haven’t seen or spoken to Jensen in five weeks and I miss him. So yes, I’m dropping everything and going out there just because I know it annoys you so much.” He went back to packing. 

 

“I’m warning you Jared. If you leave, you might as well not come back,” Genevieve threatened. “I’m sick to death of having to keep sharing you with Jensen and the rest of the Ackles family. Or even worse, having to share you with Jensen AND a room full of fan girls. Everyone else gets you when they want to except me and I’m tired of being second fiddle. So if you leave, that’s it. We’re done.”

 

Jared only finishes his packing, Genevieve not really realizing that Jared had put all of his clothes from the closet and dresser into his suitcase. Pulling the suitcase outside, he whistles for Sadie and Harley as he heads out to the car. He gets the dogs settled in the back and then comes back into the house. He grabs a backpack he basically uses as a briefcase and pulls out a folder. Walking over to the same coffee table that Genevieve had told him less than an hour ago to get his feet off of, Jared drops the folder on the table and then places his wedding ring on top of it. 

 

He turns to Genevieve who had followed him down and just stood there watching him. “There are three copies of the divorce papers in there. Sign all three of them and mail them back to the attorney in the envelopes. You can keep the house for as long as you need it, it’s all written out in the divorce and pre-nuptial agreement that you agreed to before we got married.”

 

“Just like that!” Genevieve spat out. “You’re just going to throw away everything we’ve worked for? How am I supposed to explain this to my family?”

 

“Not five minutes ago, you told me if I left, we were through. I’m just giving you what you want,” Jared tiredly replied back. “I’m sick and tired of fighting with you over every little thing that I do. I don’t know what you were expecting to happen once we got married. You’ve done nothing but harp about my hours, the publicity for the show I have to do, not to mention how you treat the fans. On top of all that, you sit there and bitch about never seeing your family. Tell me something Gen? How many times have we gone to visit my family? Huh? Once, maybe twice if I squint hard and that’s only because we were in Texas for a convention and my family drove up to see me. You knew exactly what you were getting into when we got married.”

 

“I didn’t think the show would go on for more seasons,” complained Genevieve. 

 

Jared shook his head. “That wouldn’t matter. Even if we did stop Supernatural after Season 5 did you think I’d just sit on my butt and do nothing? I’m an actor, I can’t afford to just sit around and expect the roles to come knocking at my door. I have to take work when and where I can get it, and if it means doing more seasons of Supernatural, then so be it. As long as the fans and the CW want it on the air, I’ll keep doing it.”

 

“You just want to keep doing it because it means you get to be with Jensen,” Genevieve started crying now. “I’ve never been nothing more in this relationship than a beard for you, have I? You’ve never once looked at me the way you look at him. I’m nothing more to you than just something you can throw away because you’re bored.”

 

“That’s not true and you know it,” Jared shot back. “I’ve tried. I let you completely redecorate this house even though you knew I wasn’t happy with what you were doing to it. I tried to talk you out of putting your career on hold to be with me so you would keep busy while I was filming. But no. It’s not what you wanted.” 

 

Jared stopped and threw his arms out to the side. “I just can’t do it anymore Gen. I’m tired of your constant criticism and I’m definitely tired of your hatred of my family and my relationship with the Ackles. Neither one of them is going to go away, and if you can’t accept that.” Jared just shrugged his shoulders.

 

“Fine than,” Genevieve yelled. “Go on back to your redneck roots. Just don’t expect to find anything of yours left in here when you come back. If I can break it, I will. If not, I’m throwing it away.” She crossed her arms and looked smugly at him. 

 

Jared snorted. “You go right ahead and do so. But that should be the first sign of just exactly how self-absorbed in yourself you really are.”

 

“Just what is that supposed to mean?” she sneered at him. 

 

“Look around Gen! You’ll not find one single item that belongs to me here in this house. I knew this was going to happen to us sooner or later. I’ve been packing my stuff up and either taking it with me to Vancouver every single time I flew home for the weekend or storing it at a friend’s house. That includes the wedding presents that were given to us by my family. You never even noticed that they weren’t around because you never had any intention of putting them up or using them.” He paused and looked around indifferently. “If you do happen to find anything of mine here, go ahead and do what you want with it. I don’t want it.”

 

He walked back over to the door, opened it and turned back to her just before walking through. “It’s over Gen. It will be a lot easier on everyone if you just accept it, sign the papers and get on with your life. You know as well as I that it’s what we both want.”

 

He turned and closed the door behind him, only flinching slightly at the loud thud and the sound of breaking glass against the other side of the door. Jared climbed into his truck and without once looking back he drove off for the last time and headed his truck towards Chris’ house. 

 

Arriving there about twenty minutes later, he was glad to find Chris at home, not thinking of checking before he headed over. 

 

“Hey Jared!” Chris greeted as he opened the door. He immediately noticed Jared’s frown. “What’s wrong?” Chris steered him in the direction of the living room and sat him down on the sofa. Jared’s dogs curled up around his feet. 

 

Jared sighed. “It’s done Chris. I gave her the papers and left not thirty minutes ago.”

 

“Awww damn Jay. I’m really sorry,” Chris apologized. 

 

“Don’t Chris,” Jared replied. “This has been coming for quite some time now. It just all came to a head and finally blew. It’s for the best and I’m okay with it. I’m the one that delivered the papers to her, not the other way around.”

 

“So what are you going to do now?” Chris wanted to know. 

 

“Well . . . uhm, I kinda have a favor to ask?” Jared asked sheepishly. 

 

Chris smiled. “Yes, you can stay here. I’ll be here until the end of the week and then I’m heading back to Portland.”

 

Jared frowned. “I thought you were leaving in a few days?”

 

Chris shrugged. “They pushed the start date back a week. Tim had some minor surgery and he won’t be released from the studio doctors until sometime this week. Since he’s in most of the season premier, we can’t exactly film around him. It’s cool.”

 

“I hear ya. But that’s actually not quite what I was going to ask,” Jared winced. Chris looked at him expectantly. 

 

“I got a call from Donna Ackles today. Jensen is allowed to have visitors now and he asked his mom to call me. He wants to see me,” Jared swallowed nervously. 

 

“Hey! That’s great news. I can’t wait to get out there and see him,” Chris was excited. “I feel like I haven’t seen him in years.”

 

Jared nodded. “I know. I was actually kind of wondering if you wouldn’t mind watching the dogs for me while I go. I have some things to take care of regarding my now pending divorce. I told Donna to tell Jensen I’d be there day after tomorrow, but I’d have to leave tomorrow night to get there in time to see him. I’m flying back right after I see Jensen, so I’d be gone a day and a half.”

 

Chris waved the comment aside. “Not a problem Jay. You know they’re welcome here. I’ll be happy to watch them for you.” Chris leaned over and pat Sadie on the side. She looked up and wagged her tail at him. “You don’t need to come back right away though. You can stay longer.”

 

“No, I can’t,” Jared returned. “I’ve got some meetings with Eric and the PR folks for Supernatural and they can only get the meeting scheduled in 2 days. Eric’s going to be busy the rest of the week and back and forth between Vancouver. I don’t want to make Jensen wait another whole week though. I missed him too much. At least this way, if I come back right away, maybe you can fly out there to visit with him before you have to head back up.”

 

Chris nodded. “That’s a good plan. Will I be able to get in to visit him?”

 

Jared smiled. “I’ll make sure your name is on the list and I’ll give him a warning that you’re coming.” Jared giggled. “He’s probably going to freak out wondering if you’re going to kick his ass over this.”

 

Chris huffed. “I should just for putting us through this. But no, I think I’ll wait until he’s out of rehab completely. I don’t want him having to explain the bruises.” Jared laughed. 

 

“What about Steve, or any of the other guys?” Chris brought up. “Jason has been going nuts over not knowing where he is. He’s pretty damned pissed at you for keeping it so quiet. Steve is mad at both of us, but I think he understands and is willing to wait until Jensen is ready. I’m not sure about the rest of the guys.”

 

Jared frowned. “Only you for now Chris. I’ll play it by ear and see how Jensen reacts before asking him if he wants to see anyone else. He may be okay with Steve, but I’m not sure about the others.”

 

Chris nodded. “Okay. I’ll leave it up to you, just as long as you remember to get me on that list.” He looked at his watch. “So do you have anything planned for the rest of the day?”

 

Jared glanced at his own watch and saw the time. “Not really. I wasn’t expecting to have all this hit right today. Not sure what I’m going to do.”

 

Chris pat his shoulder. “How about we get the dogs settled in, then we go and grab something to eat. I’d wager you haven’t had a decent meal in a few weeks.”

 

“You don’t have to do that Chris!” Jared insisted. “I’m okay, really. Like I said, I saw this coming for some time now. To be honest, I’m not even that broken up about it in the least. I really feel like a huge weight has been taken off my shoulders.”

 

Chris sighed. “Well then how about going out to eat then for my own piece of mind?”

 

Jared frowned. “You’re piece of mind?”

 

“Yeah. If I let you go visit Jensen looking like a string bean, he’s gonna kick my ass when I see him for not taking care of you,” Chris teased him. “Besides, I’m hungry too and don’t feel like cooking anything and there’s no way I’m letting you anywhere near my kitchen.”

 

“Oh Ha Ha,” Jared sarcastically replied. “Just cause I accidentally set fire to one little pan, everyone has to be a critic.”

 

Chris snorted. “One little pan, plus the ceiling directly above the stove had a burn mark. I didn’t think oil pan fires would have flames jump that high.”

 

“Well see. At least when I cook, all those questions you’ve wondered about get answered,” Jared emphatically replied.

 

Chris shook his head. “Come on Sasquatch. Let’s get your mutts taken care of and go before you change your mind.”

 

He pulled Jared off the couch and the two of them headed towards the kitchen to get the dogs food and water bowls set up. In no time at all, Chris had them in his truck and heading towards his favorite restaurant. 

 

tbc


	9. Chapter 8

  
Author's notes: Here's a treat for ya'll - 2 Chapters in one day. I'm post #8 now because it may be a few days before I can get to a computer as I'll be in training at work.  


* * *

Chapter 8

 

Jared walked into the lobby of the rehab center and smiled at the receptionist as he read her name off her nametag. “Hi Sheila! I’m here to visit with Jensen Ackles.”

 

Sheila smiled back. “Your name please?”

 

“It’s okay Sheila,” a voice called out from behind Jared. He turned to see Dr. Mouton heading towards him. “This is Jared Padalecki and he is allowed to visit Jensen whenever he wants to.”

 

Sheila nodded and made a note in her records. Jared shook hands with Dr. Mouton. 

 

“Hi Doc,” he greeted. “How’s our boy doing?”

 

Dr. Mouton nodded and smiled. “He’s done remarkably well in the time he’s been here Jared.”

 

Jared nodded. “So he’ll be good to go at the end of the program? I don’t mean to sound like I’m pushing him or anything. It’s just our boss needs to know if he should go ahead with the filming for the next season or delay it a few more weeks.”

 

“I see,” Dr. Mouton nodded in understanding. “That explains some of the comments Jensen’s made during our sessions. Frankly, I see no reason whatsoever why he shouldn’t be able to get back into the swing of things with his work. As I’ve said, he’s done remarkably well and I don’t anticipate any setbacks in the next three weeks. From what he’s told me of his schedule while you’re filming, getting right back into the swing of things is exactly what he needs right now. How long after he’s discharged will you have before you start filming?”

 

“We’ll have another month of hiatus” Jared responded. “We usually spend some time with our families and then head back to Vancouver about two weeks before we start filming.” Jared shrugged. “It’s mainly to just get settled back into our homes cause once we start, there’s no time to do that.”

 

Dr. Mouton thought through Jared’s response. “I don’t think there will be any problems. Jensen and I have had a few telephone sessions with the therapist that is going to take over once he returns to Vancouver. He had to have some papers faxed over to someone to take care of some legal matters in regards to it. I couldn’t tell you who it was though.”

 

“More than likely it was Eric Kripke, our boss,” Jared explained. “Eric would need to handle some details from a legal standpoint before allowing the doctor to meet with Jensen. Confidentiality agreements and all that stuff.”

 

“I understand,” Mouton nodded. “If they need anything from me, make sure and give them my information Jared. I’ll do all I can to make sure Jensen continues with this.” He clapped Jared on the shoulder. “Jensen asked if you would meet him in the garden. He likes it out there.”

 

Dr. Mouton turned to head back to his office. “Doc?” Jared called out. 

 

“Yes Jared?”

 

Jared hesitated for a moment. “Is Jensen going to be able to handle being out in the real world once he leaves here? I mean . . . well, that is . . .” he trailed off. 

 

Dr. Mouton’s smile was gentle and understanding. “In all honesty Jared, he’s going to have to handle this exactly like any other recovering alcoholic. I personally don’t think it’s going to be a problem, but he will be tempted, a lot. How he handles it is completely up to him and whether or not he really wants to stay dry.”

 

“So, there really isn’t anything I can do to help him make the right decision, is there?” Jared’s tone was sad.

 

“Actually Jared, there’s quite a lot you can do,” Mouton assured him. 

 

Jared looked hopefully at the doctor. “What? What can I do? I’ll do anything to help him out.”

 

“Just be his friend Jared. That’s all you can do,” Mouton replied. “Lend an ear when he needs to talk, help guide him when he gets confused, be his voice of reason if it looks like he’s about to stray off the path.”

 

Jared was puzzled. “But I already do all that, or I did. Nothing ever worked. If it didn’t before, what makes you think it would work now?”

 

“Trust me on this Jared,” Mouton responded. “Jensen is going to be relying on you in a whole new way after this. He’s told me that he’s confident that you’re up to the challenge.” He frowned. “You are, aren’t you?”

 

Jared thought about his relationship with Jensen over the past year and how he stuck by him no matter what Jensen threw at him. If he could handle it then, and still want to be his best friend, he could do it now. Jared smiled and looked at the doctor with confidence. “Yeah. I’m up to the challenge doc.”

 

Mouton nodded once more and then walked away. Jared turned and headed out to the garden. Just before he walked outside, a nurse told him that Jensen was told he was here and would be down in a few minutes. 

 

Jared waited patiently in the garden, enjoying the warm sun and peacefulness surrounding him. He could understand why Jensen loved the garden so much. It was almost a contradiction knowing that just beyond the fence and the line of trees surrounding the place, there was a big city filled with all the usual hustle and bustle. 

 

The sound of someone clearing their throat broke Jared from his thoughts and he turned to see Jensen standing on the path a few feet away from the bench Jared was sitting on. Jared took a moment to just look at the friend he hadn’t seen in almost two months.

 

Jensen shuffled nervously when Jared didn’t say anything. He finally decided to break the silence. “Hey, Jay,” he greeted softly. 

 

Jared smiled. “Hey Jen. It’s good to see you.” He so wanted to run to his friend and hug him, but he forced himself to hang back and let Jensen set the pace for their first meeting. 

 

Jensen nodded. “It’s good to see you too. It’s been kinda strange to go through a hiatus without talking or texting with you every day.”

 

Jared snorted, amused. “Yeah. It has been a nice quiet break for a change,” he teased. 

 

Jensen caught the twinkle in his friend’s eyes and laughed. “Gee, thanks for that.”

 

Jared only chuckled and moved over on the bench, motioning for his friend to join him. “So, how are you doing? You look like this place agrees with you.”

 

Jensen drew in a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. “I’m actually doing really well Jay. I have no complaints.”

 

“You look great,” Jared offered, then blushed when he realized what he said. “I mean . . .uhm .” 

 

Jensen chuckled at his friend’s embarrassment. “I know what you meant. My mom said the same thing when my folks came to visit the other day. Something about me looking healthier than I have in a long time.”

 

“She’s right,” Jared agreed. He poked his friend playfully in the side. “Looks like you put on a few pounds too.”

 

Jensen swatted his hand away. “Stop that! I know I have. I’ve only recently gotten privileges to work out in the gym they have on site. Gotta get back into shape before we start filming again.”

 

Jared was about to reply but he stopped when a patient and their family walked by them on the path. After they passed, Jensen turned to face Jared on the bench and put a hand on his arm. 

 

“Jared, before you say another word, I’d like to say something. Please, do me a favor and wait until I’m done before you say anything,” Jensen pleaded. Jared only nodded. 

 

“Jay, I know that no amount of apologizing I can do will ever make up for what I’ve put you through in the past year. I’ve been spiteful and at times, downright cruel to you when I was drinking and I would understand if you never wanted to have anything to do with me again. You’ve been the best friend a person could ask for and you deserve to have someone better than me carry that title for you.” Jensen paused and scooted a bit closer to Jared. “I can never find a way to thank you enough for all you did for me and my family while I’ve been here. My folks told me about all you’ve done. I’ll find a way to make it up to you.”

 

Jared put his hand on Jensen’s arm. “I’m going to stop you right there for a moment. You don’t have to do anything Jen. As far as I’m concerned, there’s nothing to make up for.”

 

Jensen frowned. “Yeah, there is. I remember yelling at you the day I was admitted here. I remember exactly what I said to you, and I remember seeing the hurt in your eyes when I said them. I never want to be the one to put that look on you again. I remember hitting you too.”

 

“It wasn’t just what you said, Jensen,” Jared admitted. “There’s been a lot of other stuff I’ve been dealing with as well. You just sorta got me at a low point.”

 

Jensen nodded. “Still, I had no right to say those things to you. I realize now that you were only looking out for me and had the best intentions in mind when you did them, and I’m so grateful for that. I know my mom has probably told you this already, but I made quite a few decisions over the past few weeks.”

 

“Honestly, I haven’t really talked with your mom much the past few weeks. She and your dad went on that church retreat and I was busy with some projects in LA. I pretty much just emailed the status reports Dr. Mouton was sending me to them so they could stay up to speed on what was going on with your treatment. So what kind of decisions have you made?” Jared wanted to know. 

 

“Well,” Jensen paused for a moment. “First off, Dr. Mouton gave me special permission to make a few phone calls. Usually we aren’t supposed to be able to while in rehab, but he made an exception for me. I called Eric during one of my therapy sessions with Dr. Mouton. I told him I was definitely coming back for the 7th season, if he still wanted me. I guess you’ve been keeping him up to date on what’s been going on.”

 

Jared nodded. “I had to. I called him as soon as I heard about the accident so he could be ready for any PR damage control. Then, he needed to know whether or not you were going to be able to make it back in time for the start of filming, or if he needed to push the start date back a few weeks. The last time I talked with him, he agreed to wait on doing anything until I called him again. Then I got the message you wanted to see me so I figured I’d call him after we met.”

 

“I don’t think you have to worry about that now,” Jensen assured him. “We had a long chat. Eric faxed over a set of conditions I would have to meet as part of my contract. We then talked them through with Dr. Mouton.”

 

“What kind of conditions?” Jared queried. 

 

Jensen shrugged. “Nothing really major, just stuff like randomly being tested for my blood alcohol content level and following through on all my therapy sessions and doctor’s appointments. He wants to make sure I don’t fall off the wagon and start drinking again. I had sent him a list of all the therapists I would be interested in meeting with once I’m discharged from here. Eric did some checking and I now have that therapist standing by. Dr. Mouton sent them my file and we’ve already had a couple of therapy sessions via a conference call. I like her.”

 

Jared smiled. “That’s good Jen. I’m glad to see you’re taking this seriously.”

 

“I am Jay. I really am,” Jensen admitted. “When Dr. Mouton told me what was going on with my body, I think that scared me the most. I remember how my uncle was and I remember swearing to myself I’d never end up like that. Then there I was starting out on the path to turn exactly into him. It scared the crap outta me. My dad was visiting that day and he and I had a very long talk about everything. I still have a hard time believing that I let myself slide that far down.”

 

Jared chewed on his bottom lip for a moment before replying. “It wasn’t you alone Jen. You had some help getting there.”

 

Jensen nodded. “Yep. And that brings me to another decision I made. I filed for divorce and should have the papers in my hand the day I leave this place. I can’t blame Danni entirely for this whole thing, but I realized she wasn’t exactly helping by dragging me out to all those events I really didn’t want to go to. Everyone tried to warn me that she was a publicity hound.”

 

“Fame whore,” Jared interrupted.

 

Jensen snorted. “Yeah well, I was trying to be pleasant. All she wanted to do was flash her rings and just rub it in to the fans that I was hers and they couldn’t have me.” Jensen shook his head. “All that time wasted with her.”

 

“What about Jason and Steve and your other friends?” Jared wanted to know. 

 

“That’s something I’m still dealing with in therapy,” Jensen frowned. “We talk through scenarios of how to deal with telling them about all this, and then how I would handle things if we all went out together. Honestly, right now, as much as I think I would say no if someone offered me a drink, I don’t think I’m strong enough yet to say no. So we’re discussing what I’m going to do once I’m out of here.”

 

“I talked with Chris and he’ll probably mention this to you. Jason is pretty damned mad at me right now because I won’t tell him where you are. He even was stupid enough to try and take a shot at Chris when he figured out that Chris knew what was going on,” Jared told him. “As for Steve, he’s just kinda going with the flow and told Chris he’d wait until you called him.” 

 

“I figured as much,” Jensen shook his head. “I know I can count on Steve to help me out once I have a chance to sit and talk with him. He’s a good guy and knows the score.”

 

“Tom and Mike were asking about you too,” Jared added. “I don’t want you thinking I ran around LA telling everyone what was going on with you, but Mike was threatening to sneak into my bedroom at night and shave my head if I didn’t speak up. So I sorta told the two of them, but that’s it.”

 

“That’s okay Jay,” Jensen nodded. “I’m glad you told them. We probably won’t have much time to get together with them before we have to head back to Vancouver. I really don’t want them thinking I just ignored them this whole summer, especially Tom. We were trying to make plans to go golfing.”

 

“Tom said not to worry about it. Since Smallville is done now and he doesn’t really have anything on the burner, he said it wouldn’t be a problem for him to shoot up to Van for a weekend and play a round with you,” Jared assured him. 

 

The both sat quietly for a few moments. Jared suddenly remember Donna making the comment about Danneel before he left. “So I’m guessing that the papers have already been delivered to Danneel?”

 

Jensen shook his head. “I just signed off on everything the other day. The lawyers said they would be delivered tomorrow. They weren’t kidding here at the center when they said no visitors for five weeks.”

 

“I can’t say I’m not surprised about you divorcing Danni,” admitted Jared. “She was furious when she found out she couldn’t use the joint cards, or yours to buy stuff. I think she was madder over that than she was over the fact that no one would tell her where you were.”

 

My dad told me what you and your father did with my finances even before I left the hospital.” Jensen shook his head. “Even before you father put a hold on the joint cards and my account, Danni was running up some pretty expensive charges from her shopping spree. She would have broken me financially if you guys didn’t step in like that.”

 

Jensen sadly shook his head. “What does it say to you when I really didn’t even think about her once while I was in here? I never thought to try and call her, or even wondered if she was trying to find me. That’s probably why making the decision to divorce her was so easy.”

 

Uhm, how do you think Danni is going to take the news?” Jared asked even though he pretty much had a good idea himself.

 

“Oh you know, the usual drama she’s so good at,” Jensen sighed. “At first she’ll play the shocked card. You know, couldn’t believe I was demanding a divorce and wanted to know why. Then she’ll get mad and start saying she would take me to the cleaners for doing this to her. Seems like she conveniently forgets about the pre-nup and when reminded her of it, she gets furious! She’ll probably then start in about how announcing a divorce at this time would just ruin her career because she spent all this time building up her image as a devoted wife.” Jensen shook his head. “I can’t believe how much of that I was in denial over. Instead of confronting her about all she was doing, I just jumped into a bottle of whiskey.”

 

Jared reached over and gripped his friend’s shoulder, saying nothing. Jensen sat still, drawing some strength from the warmth of Jared’s grip.

 

“It wasn’t just her alone though,” Jensen admitted. “I just got so sick and tired of her constant complaining and dragging me to all those media events.”

 

“Jen, you don’t need to go on,” Jared interrupted. “I know man, I really do know.”

 

Jensen smiled gratefully at him. “You really do, don’t you?” Jared only smiled. 

 

Jared nodded, but said nothing about his own situation at this point.

 

“I’m also selling my home in LA. My folks are handling that with the real estate broker,” Jensen suddenly spoke up. 

 

“That surprises me,” Jared admitted. “I thought you loved that house.”

 

Jensen snorted. “I really didn’t want to get another house Jay. I’ve already got one that I’m leasing out until we’re done filming Supernatural. It was Danni who insisted that we had to have our “own little nest”. She’s the one that picked the house out. I wasn’t really all that thrilled with it but she insisted it would look “quaint” when she was done decorating it. God, if I had only known how she was going to decorate it. I hate it!”

 

Jared snorted. “At least its better looking than what my house looks like.”

 

Jensen looked down to the ground and then suddenly stood up and paced for a moment. Jared sat quietly waiting for him to work through whatever it was that was bothering him. 

 

Jensen finally sits back down and turns to his friend. “Jared, I know I have no right to ask this of you after everything I’ve put your through.”

 

“Go ahead and ask me anything Jen,” Jared prodded. 

 

Jensen smiled. “Jay, I just need to know whether or not I’m still welcome in your home or do I need to have Eric put me up in a hotel. I have to call him back and let him know. I’ll understand completely if you’d rather I not moved back in with you, honestly. I know Gen will be living with you and she might feel awkward with me living downstairs so I really wouldn’t have a problem with moving into a hotel.”

 

“Slow down Jensen,” Jared urges, chuckling. “Take a deep breath okay?”

 

“Sorry,” Jensen apologizes. “I’ve been really nervous about asking you that.”

 

Jared laughed. “Jen, you don’t have to be afraid to ask me anything. You should know that.”

 

“I know,” he admitted. “I just realized that I shouldn’t take things for granted like I used to.” He looked shyly at his friend. “So, is it going to be a problem?”

 

This time it was Jared who stood up. He put his hands on his hips and looked down at his feet. After a moment he looked up at Jensen through his bangs. “I guess now it’s my turn. Jensen, you should know that I filed for divorce too. In fact, my mom called this morning and told me the final papers arrived at their house this morning. Genevieve is keeping the house in LA. She’s made so many renovations to it while we were shooting season 6 that I don’t even recognize it as the house I bought at the start of season 5. I hate it now. I’ve been moving all my stuff out of it over the past few months and it’s all at Chris’ place until I decide what to do with it. I’m going to keep the house in Vancouver for a while.”

 

“Why?” Jensen was in shock. “I thought you and Genevieve were getting along just great. What happened?”

 

Jared snorted and tipped his head back and looked up at the sky. “Honestly,” he stated as he looked down once more at his friend. “I think the trouble started right after the wedding. You remember when we went back to work and I got in trouble for coming in late all the time, and then finally ended up paying a fine for it?” Jensen nodded. “Well, you guys were partially right in thinking it was because of Gen and us being newlyweds. But it isn’t what you were thinking.”

 

Jensen was puzzled. “Okay. So you’re saying you weren’t oversleeping all those times because of some wild late night loving?”

 

Jared snorted again. “Got it in one. I was oversleeping those times, but its because I was up half the night arguing with Genevieve over whatever plans she had made up for either the weekends or my days off.”

 

Jensen shook his head. “Jared, I’m still confused. Are you saying you guys have been fighting all along?”

 

Jared only nodded and sat back down next to Jensen. “Yeah. Gen had this wild notion in her head that once we got married, my job would become a 9 to 5 affair and she’d have me home every night. She’d get angry with me when that didn’t happen, then she’d be mad at me because she made arrangements for us to be in Sun Valley for some social event or another and I couldn’t make it because of obligations for the show. We’d have some real knock down, drag out fights if I happened to get some time off and would want to fly home to visit my family. She only wanted her family involved in our lives. She hates Texas and everything to do with it, including my family.”

 

“I’m so sorry Jared,” Jensen replied softly. “I didn’t know any of this was going on.”

 

Jared shrugged. “It’s not like I walked onto the set every day and blabbed about it.”

 

Jensen clenched his jaw. “No, but considering the fact that I was living directly below you, you’d think I would have heard the arguing. But no. This is just another example of how screwed up my life was because of the drinking.”

 

“What do you mean?” Jared asked. 

 

“I wasn’t there for you when you really needed me,” Jensen whispered. “I was too absorbed in myself to even see that you guys were having problems.”

 

“Don’t Jen. Please don’t go down that road,” Jared begged. “Somehow I just know that my marriage should have never taken place and this was bound to happen sooner or later. Even I tried to cover up what was going on with me and Gen by pretending it was just an adjustment period we were going through. In all honesty, it was everything that happened with you that finally opened my eyes to it all and I can’t thank you enough for that.”

 

“You want to thank me for destroying my car and forcing me to face that I was an alcoholic?” Jensen asked in disbelief.

 

“No, no, no, God no,” Jared pleaded. “That’s not what I meant at all. Damn that all came out wrong.”

 

Jensen smiled. It’s okay Jared. I think I know what you really meant. In a way, I guess it’s the same thing for me and my marriage with Danneel. So I’d say we’re both even on that account.” Jared smiled in return. 

 

“Soooo, does this mean I still have a place to live in Vancouver?” Jensen asked his question again. 

 

Jared turned to face Jensen. “You are more than welcome to move back in with me, but I’m going to have to put a few restrictions of my own out there.”

 

“Fair enough,” Jensen nodded. “Like what?”

 

Jared shrugged. “Like, there will be no alcohol in the house. If any of your friends want to come and visit you, I’d prefer they not come to the house. If you go out with them, that’s fine with me, but the first time you come home smelling like a brewery, you’re out the door. I’m not going to live through all that again. I can’t go through it again.”

 

“I understand,” Jensen admitted. “And I’ll agree to any conditions you put down Jay. I’m serious.” He shakes his head. “I understand a lot of things now and see things a lot more clearly. You know, when I first started here, I had decided that I wasn’t going to do anything they told me to do. I wasn’t going to have any chick flick moments in therapy sessions and cry out my sins. But after listening to everyone talk about their problems and how they ended up in rehab, I realized that my problems weren’t anywhere near as traumatic as theirs were and I felt like a real idiot for doing this to myself. So I started participating and getting more involved with my individual therapy sessions. They really opened my eyes to what I was doing to myself, to my family, and especially to you Jared. I don’t want that anymore. I don’t want to live like that anymore. And if it means getting a whole new set of friends, then so be it. Just as long as I know you’ll still have faith in me, that’s all that matters.”

 

Jared couldn’t stop the tears that had welled up as he listened to Jensen admit to his faults and how he overcame them. He could literally feel the weight lifting off his shoulders that he had been carrying the whole time Jensen was in rehab. He’d been afraid that his best friend would rebel against everything and, as a result, he would lose the greatest friend he ever had. He was so happy to hear the words that Jensen spoke.

 

He quickly wiped the tears away and lightly punched Jensen in the arm. “So much for not wanting any chick flick moments there buddy.”

 

Jensen laughed at his overly emotional friend. “Sorry ‘bout that Jared.”

 

“No you’re not,” Jared shot back. “You love having an excuse to make me cry because I do it so easily.”

 

“Yeah, well, what can I say,” Jensen replied breezily. “It’s the highlight of my day being able to make you ball your eyes out.”

 

“Jerk,” Jared muttered under his breath. Jensen still heard it though. 

 

“Bitch,” he found himself automatically replying. 

 

The two sat in comfortable silence for a bit, enjoying the light breeze and the warmth of the afternoon. Jared turned to Jensen. 

 

“You might be happy to know that I really had a shoulder to lean on during all this,” admitted Jared. 

 

“That’s good to know,” Jensen smiled. “I’m glad you had a friend there to help you out.”

 

Jared giggled and Jensen looked at him shocked and amused. “What’s so funny?”

 

“It isn’t really my friend, Jens,” Jared told him. “If you plan on getting a whole new set of friends, you better not be including Chris in that list or else he’s liable to kick your ass.”

 

Jensen winced. “He’s liable to kick my ass anyway just out of spite. Sure I can’t consider getting rid of him as a friend just to avoid it?”

 

Jared laughed. “He’d still do it.” Jensen only groaned and sat back to enjoy the day.

 

Jensen watched Jared out of the corner of his eye and when he saw him finally relax his stance, he felt he could continue. 

 

“Jay?” he asked softly. “There’s one thing more I’d like to ask.”

 

Jared casually waved his hand at him. “Lay it on me!”

 

“It’s kinda serious Jay,” Jensen admitted. Jared sat up straight and turned to look at him at those words. 

 

“Okay. I’m listening.”

 

Jensen nodded. “I did a lot of thinking about some other things too.” He snorted. “There actually is not a lot of things to do here except to think. Anyway, I came to some other conclusions as well as what we just talked about.”

 

“Like . . .?” Jared prodded him gently to continue.

 

“Like the fact that I feel that the biggest mistake I ever made was to agree to the demands of everyone when they told us we had to break up. After thinking about the whole situation for a long time, I realized I was angry at everyone for doing that to us. We had something special and unique and I was a fool to think I could ever get that same thing with Danni. I made a promise to myself that I would never let anyone tell me how to live my personal life again, even if it meant giving up acting. I wouldn’t be the first actor to come out of hiding and I seriously doubt I’d be the last.” Jensen paused to catch his breath and he looked Jared straight on. 

 

“What are you saying Jen?” Jared asked. 

 

“I’m saying that I’m sorry I listened to everyone else and not to you when we were told to break up. I’m saying that I would really like to get back together with you again and hopefully pick up where we left off. I really want it Jay. But I’m not going to push you into it. I know how much I’ve hurt you over this and would not give you any grief if you decided you didn’t want to get our relationship back on track to where it was before.”

 

Jared stands up once again and this time paces for a few minutes. Jensen can tell when his friend comes to a decision by the way he jammed his hands into his pockets and just stood there. 

 

Jared shakes his head. “It can’t happen Jensen. There’s just too much water under the bridge for us to be able to do that.”

 

Tbc (hehehe Your treat for Halloween - this extra chapter. The Trick - my cliffhanger ending there)


	10. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

 

_Jared shakes his head. “It can’t happen Jensen. There’s just too much water under the bridge for us to be able to do that.”_

 

Jensen felt his heart drop down into his stomach and he couldn’t stop the look of rejection that crossed his face. 

 

Jared can plainly see what his statement has done to his friend. Before Jensen can say anything, Jared drops to his knees in front of him and takes Jensen’s hands into his own. “Wait Jen. I’m not finished.”

 

“What more is there to say?” Jensen practically whispers, his head hanging down in sorrow.

 

“Jensen, please look at me,” Jared reaches up and tilts his friends face so they are looking at each other. “Jen, we’ve both been through a lot the past few years and we’re not the same people we were before. We’ve changed, maybe too much for us to be able to just pick up where we left off and expect to make it work. The way I see it, the only way we can get back to the level of a relationship we had before is to start all over again, a fresh new slate between us and take the time to get to learn who we are now.”

 

Jensen almost starts to cry in relief. Jared smiles and cups the side of Jensen’s cheek with his hand and Jensen reaches up and places his hand over Jared’s.

 

“I think that’s a great idea, Jared,” Jensen agrees. He tilts his head to the side as he considers his friend for a moment. “You’re right though. We’ve both changed, grown up a bit more.”

 

Jared got up from his crouched position and sat down on the bench once more, this time, much closer to Jensen. He kept a hold of Jensen’s hands in his own. “But I think it’s a good thing Jensen. We’ve both learned a hard lesson about exactly how much control we didn’t have over our own lives and were blind to it. I for one sort of appreciate the wake up call.”

 

“Me too,” nodded Jensen. He took in a deep breath and squared his shoulders. “So, where do we go from here, or I mean after I get outta here.”

 

“Well, I don’t know if they told you this or not, but your folks are planning a welcome home party for you,” Jared told him. “My mom and dad are driving up from San Antonio for it.”

 

Jensen beamed. “Super! Then I can thank them personally for all the support they gave my folks. I really can’t thank your family enough for being there for them, Jay.”

 

Jared waved off the praise. “You’re family Jensen. It’s what we do for each other.”

 

“Do you know who else is going to be there?” questioned Jensen.

 

Jared shrugged. “As far as I know just your family and mine, maybe Chris if he is available. Why?”

 

“How would you feel about telling our families about us then,” Jensen wondered. “They know about the divorces, so we don’t have to say anything about that. I don’t know if telling them about us this soon is a good idea, but I do know I don’t want to hide it from them for so long like we did the first time.”

 

“I think it’s a great idea. I don’t want to hide it either,” Jared agreed. “At least if they know right from the start, then we can be ourselves in front of them and not worry about what they may say.”

 

“It will help us too,” Jensen admitted. “I have a feeling when word gets out about the divorces, the fans are going to have a field day on trying to guess why. I’m sure Danneel will start trying to turn the tide of sympathy towards her.” Jensen groaned in frustration. “I’m really kind of at a disadvantage here to do anything about it too.”

 

Jared gripped his shoulder and grinned. “Don’t worry about it. I think our sisters are taking some steps of their own to help us out on that front.”

 

Jensen looked skeptical. “Do I really want to know or is this one of those times that ignorance would truly be bliss?”

 

Jared snickered. “Even I don’t want to know what they are up to.” 

 

Jensen chuckled. “I hear ya! I think those two together can create more chaos in the fandom than any of the fans alone.” He paused for a few moments. “That still leaves me with figuring out what to do about anything Danni may say. How are you working it with Gen?”

 

“Well, I don’t know about how you worded your divorce settlement, but Genevieve was basically slapped with a gag order as part of the pre-nup and divorce decree,” Jared stated. “Neither one of us can say anything to the press or make any type of an announcement until we both agree to do it at the same time. We can tell our families and managers, but that’s it. She knows if she says anything or the news leaks before the agreed upon date, then she loses a big chunk of the settlement.” He grinned. “And since she hasn’t exactly been working steady gigs since before we got married, she isn’t exactly in the financial position to argue about it.”

 

Jensen snorted. “I wished I had it that easy with Danneel.”

 

Jared frowned. “I thought your prenup was ironclad?”

 

“The prenup is, but I didn’t have any type of a gag order put in,” Jensen explained. “Basically, it states that if she’s the one to ask for the divorce she gets nothing from me in settlement. But if I’m the one to ask for it, I have to pay her $5 million.”

 

Jared whistled. “That’s rough. I only have to pay Gen half of that. I’m giving her the house so if she can’t afford it on her own, she can always sell it and keep the money.”

 

Jensen shrugged. “If I’m lucky enough to get the house sold right away, that’s really about all I’ll have to pay too. Dad contacted the real estate agent a few days ago and the house was listed at $2.5 mil and my dad said the agent knew of some people who might be interested. If they want it, they want to move in right away. Dad should be calling me this weekend to tell me what they say. He also said that the lawyers will make sure that Danneel takes out just her stuff and anything I don’t want. Mackenzie and my mom flew out today, before Danneel gets served, and are going to pack up my stuff and the things I told them I want. Danneel is in Chicago until tomorrow for some photo shoot for her series. They’ll also be there to make sure Danneel doesn’t try and take anything that isn’t hers. I’m not sure what they plan on doing with my stuff once their done; either way, once I get out of here, I’ve got to get to LA to take care of business.”

 

“You’re going to be busy once you get out of here, aren’t you?” Jared commented. 

 

“No kidding! I was sitting here one day working it all out and I figured I was going to be so busy once I got out of here, that I’d only be able to head back up to Vancouver about a week before we start filming again. That wasn’t going to give me enough time to find a place to live there.”

 

“You can’t possibly have that much stuff where it’ll take that long to pack!” exclaimed Jared.

 

“Well, no,” Jensen admitted. “A lot of the stuff that I really, really want is up in Vancouver. I was taking into consideration that I’d still have to go up to there and look for a place to live in case you decided against me moving back in.”

 

Jared nodded. “Don’t worry about then. Take some time and relax a bit once you get outta here. I’ll touch base with your mom and try and get over there to help them. I’ve got some stuff to do with Eric for season 7, but most of what is left to be done we have to wait until you’re outta here. So I can help you pack. And I’m sure if you asked Chris for help, he’d be more than willing to do so. He’s letting me store some stuff there and he’s watching the dogs for me right now.” Jared grinned. “Of course, you’ll probably do best to wait until after he kicks your ass from here back to Cali before asking him.”

 

Jensen winced. “How mad is he?”

 

“Chris first called me while you were in the hospital,” Jared explained. “I told him what happened and what your folks were planning on doing once you were released. He was so mad at himself for not talking to you before your drinking got that far out of control.”

 

Jensen shook his head. “It wasn’t his fault!”

 

“Try telling him that,” Jared countered. “Come on Jen. You know how he is.”

 

A soft smile graced Jensen’s features. “Yeah, I do.” He looked at Jared. “Maybe you can put him on my approved visitor’s list so he can visit me?”

 

“Already done,” was Jared’s confident reply. “Other than your mom, dad, Josh and Mac, Chris is the only other name on it. If you want me to add anyone else, just let me know.”

 

Jensen again shook his head. “No, that’s good for now. I’ve only got three weeks left and I want to focus on being able to get out of here. But if I don’t let Chris come and see me soon, he’s gonna kick my ass for sure.”

 

“You’re probably right, and you can expect a visit from him tomorrow. He’s flying in tonight and will be here first thing tomorrow,” Jared teased him. 

 

Jensen groaned. “Thanks for the head’s up.”

 

Jared sat up suddenly and started digging through his pockets. “Oh, I almost forgot!” He pulled out a cell phone and tossed it to Jensen. “I cleared this with Dr. Mouton. You can have a cell phone now so people can call you. Your folks thought it might be best to give you one with a new number on it so not everyone can reach you. Besides me, your family and Chris, Eric is the only other person that has that number.”

 

“Thanks!” Jensen was grateful. “Now I don’t have to wait until one of the public phones are available in the day room. Maybe I won’t feel so cut off now from the outside world. I can get a lot of stuff done with this.” He looked over at Jared once again and sighed. Jared frowned when he saw his friend’s eyes tearing up. 

 

“What’s wrong Jensen?” he asked softly. 

 

Jensen shook his head and sniffed. “Even after everything . . .” he trailed off. “I just suddenly felt like I’m taking unfair advantage of you Jay. You’ve been so strong for everyone and you’re shouldering the burden of getting stuff ready for Season 7. Then here I go dumping even more on you once I get out of here. It just doesn’t seem fair to you. You’ve got your own life to deal with too.”

 

Jared reached over and gripped Jensen’s forearm. “And I don’t want you to worry one bit about it Jensen. If all this had been happening to me, you’d be doing the same thing.” He grinned and chuckled. “Except probably even worse because knowing you, you’d put on your ‘Dean’ face and force everyone to do what you want.”

 

“Damn straight I would,” Jensen put forth in his best Dean voice. “No one messes with my little brother except me. I’ll rip out the lungs of anyone who tries!”

 

Both men laughed. 

 

Jared got serious again and chewed his bottom lip. Jensen knew that look and wondered what Jared had to say now that he was nervous about bringing it up. “Jay?” he placed a hand on Jared’s thigh.

 

Jared sighed. “It’s nothing big Jensen, honest. I just thought of something else and am not quite sure how to ask it to see what you think?”

 

Jensen shrugged. “Just ask me. I think after almost seven years of interpreting some of the questions you’ve asked, I shouldn’t have a problem with this one.” He grinned and waited for his friend to get what he just said. He laughed when he saw Jared got it almost right away. 

 

“Jerk,” Jared muttered but then shook his head and smiled. “It’s just this. When I was doing all this thinking about how to handle the divorce from Gen, I did remember your mom saying to Danni that she was going to make sure you got one too, so then I started realizing we both were going to get divorced at the same time.”

 

Jensen nodded, not quite sure what Jared was leading up to. “Yeah, and?”

 

“Well, I know the fans are going to go ape shit over the news once we decide to announce it. The big thing is going to keep it quiet until we’re ready to say something.”

 

Jensen frowned. “Jared, this time I have to say I’m really not getting the point you’re trying to make. Are you saying we should come out of the closet right away?”

 

Jared shook his head. “NO!” He startled himself with how loud he said the word and took a breath to calm himself. “No. That’s not what I’m saying. What I’m trying to say Jen, is that we can’t just worry about keeping the girls quiet about this, we need to make sure the people we work with don’t say anything either, and honestly, there’s a couple of people I can think of right off the bat that won’t really help us in that situation.”

 

“Okay,” Jensen admitted. “Well, we both agree we have to tell our managers, Eric, and by proxy that means Bob and Sera will have to be told as well. I can count on them to keep it quiet. Are you thinking that maybe Jim or Misha will spill the beans?”

 

“Definitely not worried about Jim saying anything,” Jared assured him. “Misha will probably try and say something in his usual cryptic way, but hopefully the fans are so used to him and his crazy antics, they won’t give it a second though.” He sighed. “No, the one person I’m really worried that will cause more problems even if he does keep it quiet is Clif.”

 

“CLIF?” Jensen asked, surprised. “Why would you think Clif would say or do something?”

 

“I’m not saying he would come right out and say anything direct,” Jared stated. “But you know how he or some of his fans are constantly haunting some of the gossip sites and posting shit. How do we know he or one of his followers won’t post something they aren’t supposed to?”

 

Jensen gave Jared a measured look. “Jared? Are you thinking about asking the studio to get us a new bodyguard? I know you haven’t been exactly thrilled with Clif’s antics on twitter and those sites, but he’d never give us up like that.”

 

Jared stood up and paced for a moment. He finally faced Jensen, shoved his hands in his front pockets and seemed to try and make himself smaller. Jensen smiled as he realized Jared hadn’t opted that pose since they ended filming the first season. He used to do it because he was somewhat shy and nervous when asking for anything. 

 

“I know he wouldn’t Jensen. Okay, I’ll admit the thought of keeping Clif on board if we’re going to get back together makes me a bit anxious. I like him, I really do. But damn it Jen! If I want to spend time with you alone or take you out somewhere or go away for the weekend alone with you, I don’t want him tagging along. Sometimes . . .” Jared paused and flopped down on the bench next to Jensen. 

 

“Sometimes?” Jensen prodded gently.

 

Jared ran a hand through his hair and sighed again. “Sometimes I feel like he’s been too deeply involved with our lives for the past few years, ya know? Like maybe he’d been ordered by the studio to integrate his family with ours just so he could keep an eye on us and make sure we’re following the demands of the network as far as the relationship with the girls went.”

 

Jensen sat back and was quiet for a bit. Jared mistook his silence for something else and spoke up. 

 

“You know what? Never mind what I just said Jen. Maybe it didn’t come out right, I don’t know. Just forget I said it.”

 

“No, no, I’m sorry,” Jensen hurriedly replied. “It was my fault for not answering right away. I was just thinking about everything that’s happened and how your right that Clif always seemed to be right in the center of it.”

 

“So you agree with me that we need to ask about getting rid of him?” Jared hesitantly asked. 

 

Jensen nodded. “I think we should make it part of our discussion with Eric and see what happens.” 

 

Jensen looked over Jared’s shoulder and caught sight of an intern at the center waving at him and pointing towards his watch. Jensen nodded and waved back at him. Jared noticed the movement and frowned. 

 

“Something wrong?”

 

“No,” Jensen assured him. “That was just Peter letting me know that visiting hours are over.”

 

Jared looked down at his watch in shock. “Wow! I didn’t realize how much time had passed.”

 

“Time flies and all that jazz,” Jensen replied. “I’m really glad you came here today Jay. You have no idea how much better I feel about everything now.”

 

Jared stood up and stretched. “I’m glad Jensen. I’ve really been worried about you. I have to fly back to LA tonight to take care of a few things, so I may not be around for about a week. I think Chris is planning on staying for a bit though.”

 

Jensen nodded and held up the cell phone. “At least now I can call you with this.”

 

“You better call me,” Jared warned him. “I expect to get a phone call from you every night at, oh say 10pm Texas time?”

 

“You got it,” Jensen agreed. He looked around and saw a few people standing off in the distance. “I really wished I could kiss you goodbye, Jay.” He gestured towards some of the people. “But, we’d better not until . . .”

 

Jared nodded in agreement. “Can’t kiss you, but I can do this!” He pulled his friend into a tight hug. “I’m so proud of you Jensen,” he whispered in his friend’s ear.

 

Jensen only slapped him on the back and the two broke apart. Both had tears welling in their eyes. “Thanks,” he whispered back. 

 

Jared gripped his shoulders and spoke sternly to his friend. “You buckle down and get through these last three weeks, you hear me?”

 

Jensen grinned and threw him a mock salute. “Yes SIR!”

 

“I mean it. I really miss not having you around to pick on me,” Jared replied. “I need my friend back.”

 

Jensen smiled warmly at him. “You’ll have him back Jared. Just three more short weeks to go and I promise, you’ll have him back. Now you better scoot before Peter comes over here and drags you away.”

 

Jared embraced his friend once more in a tight hug and then pulled away. He turned and walked back down the path towards the building, not once turning back to look at his friend. Jensen watched him, but wasn’t the least bit upset that Jared didn’t turn around and wave goodbye. He knew how hard it would be for either of them to let go if Jared did indeed turn around. 

 

A throat being cleared behind him broke Jensen from his gaze and he turned to see Peter standing there. “Sorry about that, man,” Jensen apologized sheepishly. 

 

Peter smiled. “Not a problem Jensen. I’m glad to see you had another visitor other than your family.”

 

Jensen smiled warmly. “That was my best friend, who’s also a big part of my family.”

 

Peter nodded. “I know who he is Jensen. I watch Supernatural . . . well actually, my girlfriend watches the show and I have no choice but to as well if I want to see her on Friday nights.”

 

Jensen chuckled. “I don’t know if I should be happy you watch the show just to please her or, or feel sorry for you having to be put through all that.”

 

“Oh, I don’t mind. Actually, if I’m honest about it, I like the show myself,” Peter admitted. He looked in the direction Jared had headed off. “If you don’t mind my saying, you two seemed to be having a pretty intense discussion. Is everything alright? I mean, do we need to keep him from coming to visit you again?”

 

“No! God no, please don’t do that,” Jensen begged. “No, you got it all wrong Peter, really. Jared is probably the one person I can really talk to about anything and get a sincere and honest answer. We’ve been through a hell of a lot together and don’t really hold anything back from each other. Trust me, not allowing him to come and visit me is probably the worst thing you can do.”

 

Peter smiled. “Okay man. It’s good that you have someone like that. It’s not going to be easy once you leave here. I know Jared is a big guy and all, but is he strong enough to help you out once you leave?”

 

Jensen stopped walking and looked at Peter, thinking. He then nodded and smiled. “He is, probably a lot stronger than most people give him credit for. I’ve really put him through the wringer the past few years and he never left my side. What we have to face together from now is going to be a cakewalk compared to what we’ve been through.”

 

Peter nodded in agreement and the two walked back inside the complex.

 

tbc


	11. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

 

The day had finally arrived. The day that Jared, Jensen and the Ackles family had been waiting for through eight long weeks of separation. 

 

Chaos was the word of the day in the Ackles household. Jared, his parents, Megan, Josh and his family, all arrived at the Ackles home in the late morning. Jensen had called his folks to tell them that he was going to be released after his final therapy session with Dr. Mouton. That session included his new therapist in Vancouver via a conference call so they had to do it late in the morning because of the time difference. Jensen asked if Jared would be the only one to come pick him up so he could get home right away. He knew if his parents came, the tearful reunion would take forever and he wanted OUT! 

 

The Padalecki clan arrived at the Ackles home a little after 11. Mackenzie and Megan immediately ran outside and started moving things around and setting up the tables for the food. Josh and Jeff both made sure their wives and kids got settled before going out to help their sisters by setting up the barbecue grill. While their wives set up the kids in the family room, Jared joined his parents with Donna and Alan at the dining room table. 

 

“I never thought this day would ever come,” Donna sighed. “It’s funny, when you’re waiting to do something like go away on vacation or even trying to get ready for Christmas, eight weeks just flies by and it’s here before you know it. But these past eight weeks.”

 

Alan reached over and gripped her hand. “They’ve been long for us Donna, but think about how much longer it has to have been for our son.” Donna nodded. 

 

“Well, we’re all just so happy that Jensen is soon going to be back under your roof once more and is healthy and on the mend,” Sherri spoke up. “I’ve been praying so hard for him.”

 

Donna smiled and reached out to her friend. “And those prayers have been answered. My baby is coming home to me and he’s going to get better.”

 

Alan snorted. “I don’t think Jensen would appreciate being referred to as your baby, Donna.” 

 

Gerry chuckled. “Probably about as much as Jared appreciates it when Sherri calls him that.”

 

Donna and Sherri both turned to their husbands and shushed them. Gerry frowned at his wife and looks over to Alan. 

 

“I guess that’s our cue to go outside and make sure the grill is all set up,” he suggested. 

 

“Absolutely,” Alan agreed. “Jared, you gonna come with us?”

 

Jared shook his head. “Nah. I might head over there a little early. Traffic was a nightmare driving in and I don’t want to get there too late.”

 

“No kidding,” Gerry commented. “It was like bumper to bumper but I didn’t hear anything on the radio about any accidents.”

 

Alan frowned for a moment, then nodded knowingly. “Speed Week, I’ll bet. We’re there a lot of trucks hauling trailers on the road?”

 

Jared nodded. “Yeah, big long trailers. What do you mean Speed Week? I thought that was in the early Spring?”

 

“It normally is, but they had to push it back a few months this year because of the road construction on 35 around Alliance Airport,” Donna explained. “With Texas Motor Speedway just down from there, the traffic would have been horrendous if they tried to have a major event there at the same time as construction.”

 

Jared scoffed. “Since when does any part of I-35 need to have help in causing traffic nightmares?”

 

Alan only nodded in agreement and he and Gerry walked out to join their other kids in the backyard. Jared stayed sitting at the table with the moms. 

 

Donna set down a glass of ice tea in front of him and then rubbed a hand along his back. “Haven’t heard much from you the past few weeks sweetie. Jensen told me that you both talked every night, but we never heard from you except for the emails. Is everything alright?”

 

Jared shared a look with his mom. Sherri nodded sympathetically. 

 

“I’m sorry Donna. I didn’t mean for it to look like I was ignoring you guys,” Jared apologized. “I would have been here in a flash if you needed me.”

 

“I know you would have,” Donna assured him. “We were just worried about how you were handling everything.”

 

Sherri reached over and took her son’s hand. “It hasn’t been easy for any of us,” she spoke for him. “Genevieve really made a spectacle of herself after Jared gave her the divorce papers. He hadn’t even called us to tell us they were delivered before she was on the phone to Megan screaming at her about how rudely she was being treated and that our family was going to regret it.”

 

“To say she was pissed would be an understatement,” Jared agreed. “I had really hoped she would have been grownup about the whole affair, but having to have my lawyer invoke the gag order that was written into our agreements really set her off.”

 

Donna shook her head in sympathy. “Danneel wasn’t much better. When she got home that day after Mackenzie and I got there to pack Jensen’s stuff, she was horrendous. I guess our lawyer made sure to not miss her in any way whatsoever and was parked outside the house waiting for her to get home. She was barely out of the cab when they delivered the papers to her.”

 

“I thought her voice in general was grating,” Mackenzie added as she walked in from the back yard. “Her screeching when she saw what the papers were and then realized we were there and what we were doing could shatter glass.”

 

“She definitely wasn’t happy when I showed up to help you guys out,” Jared commented. “I kept expecting her claws to come out and scratch my eyes out with the way she was looking at me.”

 

“She was angry,” agreed Donna. “But ya know what? I don’t care. She agreed to all the conditions in the prenuptial agreement and signed the document. If she was expecting to hold out for more than that, it’s her own fault for not saying so at the start. This only proves to me that she wanted Jensen for nothing more than arm decoration and to use whatever status he earns to only further her career.”

 

Mackenzie hugged her mom. “Well, Jensen doesn’t have to worry about that anymore. He’s rid of her for good and hopefully now he can concentrate on finding someone who will really love him for who he is.” She looked over at Jared and winked at him.

 

Jared returned the wink but found himself wondering if she knew about her and her brother. He couldn’t help himself and quirked an eyebrow at her. She just shrugged then headed to the kitchen to get some stuff to take outside.

 

Jared looked up at the clock on the wall and saw the time. “Well, I’m going to head out now. If he calls, tell him I’m on my way.”

 

“Drive safe sweetie,” Sherri warned her son.

 

Donna walked him to the door and hugged him. When she stepped back, Jared saw the tears in her eyes. “Bring my boy home to us.” Jared nodded, his own eyes getting misty. 

 

“I will.” He turned and left.

 

***** 

 

“Okay Dr. Anders,” Jensen acknowledged. “I’ll call you in about a week and give you an idea of when I’ll be up in Vancouver.”

 

“That’s fine Jensen,” the voice of Dr. Vanessa Anders came over the speakerphone. “I’ll be looking forward to meeting you in person and not just a disembodied voice.”

 

“Considering what type of show Jensen is filming, I wouldn’t exactly use that word,” Mr. Mouton answered cheerfully. 

 

Jensen laughed. “Don’t let him worry you Doc. He’s just feeling smug with himself because he helped me salt and burn some of my own personal ghosts.”

 

I hope that wasn’t a literal comment,” Dr. Anders stated. “I’d hate to have to consider counseling you for pyromania now.”

 

All three laughed. Jensen felt good to be able to laugh openly with the two doctors who had become his entire life for the past eight weeks. Dr. Anders ended the call on her side and Jensen and Dr. Mouton were left alone. 

 

“Well,” Mouton slapped his thighs and stood up. “I’m guessing by the fact that you brought your belongings with you to this session, you’re more than anxious to get the heck outta here?”

 

“No offense Doc,” Jensen assured him. “But I’ve got two families at home waiting to see me and I’m more than anxious to see them too.”

 

Dr. Mouton smiled warmly at Jensen. “I’m sure they are. You’re very lucky Jensen. Not many people who come here have a family that is as dedicated and loving as yours. Most of them are just sent here to dry out and never hear from their supposed loved ones. But between your family and Jared, I know for sure that I will never see you again.” He stuck out his hand to shake hands with Jensen. 

 

Jensen gripped his hand, but then quickly pulled him into a hug. “I can’t thank you enough for sticking with me Doc. I know you get paid to do it, but I really appreciate all the time and effort you put into working with me.”

 

“Doctor, Jensen’s ride is at the front desk.” The voice of Dr. Mouton’s assistant came over the intercom. 

 

Mouton once again shook Jensen’s hand and gestured towards the door. “Go on Ackles. Get the hell out of my clinic and I hope you never cross the threshold again.” His voice was stern but his eyes were laughing. Jensen only nodded, turned and walked out of his therapist’s office for the last time. 

 

As he walked down the hallways of what had been his home for the past eight weeks, Jensen said goodbye to all the aides and nurses that helped him. His smile got bigger and his eyes twinkled when they lit on the sight of his best friend waiting for him at the front desk. 

 

Jared’s own smile grew when he saw Jensen walking towards him. It took all his control to not let out a loud whoop and run over and grab his friend in a big Padalecki-sized bear hug. He just settled for clapping Jensen on the shoulder as he reached his side. 

 

“Ready to get outta here?” Jared grinned. 

 

Jensen smiled back and nodded. “I am so ready to go. Is everyone at the house?”

 

Jared reached over and grabbed the box that Jensen was carrying. “Yep, everyone except Chris. He sends his apologies that he couldn’t make it but said he definitely wants us to try and stop in Portland on our way back to Vancouver.”

 

Jensen stopped at the door as the same orderly that was there when he arrived, stepped over to them. “Hey Michael,” Jensen greeted. 

 

Michael held out his hand for Jensen to shake. “Good luck to you Jensen. I’m happy to see that your exit from this place is going to be a lot less exciting than your arrival.”

 

Jensen laughed. “It definitely will.” He glanced over at Jared and frowned when he saw Jared wince at the comment. Jensen said goodbye to Michael and stepped outside the doors to freedom. 

 

Jared led him over to where the car was parked and the two climbed in. “You do know that once you get home, you’ll be bombarded with two extremely happy mothers and two excited sisters?”

 

“I know, and for once, I really don’t mind one bit,” admitted Jensen. As Jared moved to put the key in the ignition, Jensen took a quick look around. Not seeing anyone, he reached over and put his hand on Jared’s arm, stopping him from starting the car.

 

“Something wrong?” Jared asked.

 

Jensen only shook his head, leaned over and captured Jared’s lip in a soft kiss. Startled at first, but quickly giving in, Jared returned the kiss. Neither one of them were looking for it to turn into anything more than that. It was just a first kiss promising that there would be many more to follow in the coming days. 

 

Jensen finally pulled back and rest his forehead against Jared’s. “I’ve been waiting to do that for almost four weeks,” his voice was low and deep with emotion.

 

Jared reached up and ran a finger along Jensen’s cheek. “Me too,” he agreed. 

 

Jensen cleared his throat and sat back. “We better go. The families are waiting. 

 

Jared only smiled and turned on the car. Once he got out of the lot and onto the main road, he reached over and took Jensen’s hand into his, holding on tight. Jensen curled his fingers around Jared’s hand, hanging on and taking comfort in the strength and love that flowed from it.

 

***** 

 

It had been an extremely emotional reunion for Jensen and his family when he finally walked through the front door. His mother still kept on tearing up any time she looked over at him. Josh hugged his brother and both boys pounded each other on the back, Josh apologizing profusely for letting his “little brother” down.

 

“It wasn’t your fault,” Jensen choked out, his voice deep with emotion. 

 

“Maybe not,” Josh countered. “But if there’s one thing I learned from Dean, whenever your little brother gets hurts, it’s always the big brother’s fault for not paying more attention to them.”

 

Jensen laughed and hugged his brother once again. He moved over to his sister, looking at her with shame and trepidation. “Am I still YOUR big brother?”

 

Mackenzie answered by just throwing herself into her brother’s arms and holding on tight. “Don’t you ever put me or this family through something like that ever again,” she warned, and cried at the same time. 

 

Jensen wrapped his arms around her and held on tightly. “I promise Kenz,” he whispered in her ear. “I won’t do this to the family ever again.”

 

Mackenzie pulled back and sniffled. “Good. I’m going to hold you to that promise big brother.”

 

During the reunion, Jared had joined his family who had moved into the living room to allow the Ackles family the time alone with their son. Jensen now sought them out as his family joined them in the room. 

 

“Thank you so much Sherri,” he greeted as he hugged her. “I can’t thank you enough for being there for my mom when she needed it. 

 

Sherri only shushed him as she placed her hands on his cheeks. “You have nothing to thank me for, young man. You’re family, and it’s what’s done, being there for each other. 

 

Jensen smiled and gave her a kiss on the cheek. He then moved over to Gerry and stuck out his hand. Gerry shook Jensen’s hand, but then pulled him in for a one-armed hug. “Sorry kiddo, a handshake just doesn’t cut it in my book.”

 

Now I know where Jared gets it from.” Jensen laughed and shook his head. “We’ll get together later to talk about things,” Jensen promised. 

 

Gerry waved his request aside. “Nonsense. All that can wait while you have a proper reunion with your family.” 

 

Jensen nodded and turned to face Jeff. “So are you another big brother that’s gonna whip my ass for all this?”

 

Jeff shook his head and put an arm around Jensen’s shoulder. “No, that’s Josh’s prerogative. What I am going to say though is this. I may be an orthopedic doctor, but I am still a doctor. You’ve got a long, rough road ahead of you Jensen. If you need help, or just kinda are feeling a bit off, don’t you think twice about picking up the phone and giving me a call.”

 

“I won’t Jeff,” Jensen promised. 

 

Megan didn’t even give Jensen a chance to say anything at that point. She just grabbed him up in a hug and held on tight. 

 

Thanks for being there for Mac,” Jensen whispered in her ear. “OUCH!” he exclaimed as he felt a stinging blow to the back of his head. He stepped back and looked at Megan in shock. “You hit me!”

 

“Damned straight I did Ackles,” Megan huffed. “You screw up like that again and you’ll find out how I always manage to best those two brutes I call brothers in fights.”

 

Jensen put his hands up in a surrendering gesture. “I hear ya. I promise.”

 

Jensen turned when he heard giggling going on behind him and knew it was Jared. “Wanna tell me what’s so funny Sasquatch?”

 

Jared laughed openly. “You better heed her warning Jensen. She plays dirty.”

 

Everyone laughed and the two families once again joined together and headed out into the backyard to enjoy some good ole Texas barbecue with a big helping of family fun.

 

***** 

 

The summer sun was finally starting to set and the warm temperatures of the day were giving way to a nice breeze in the evening hours. Josh and Jeff had gotten the fire pit in the middle of the Ackles backyard built up and a nice sized fire was roaring in the pit. Their wives were putting the little ones to bed and would be joining them shortly. 

 

Jared and Jensen helped their sisters move everyone’s chairs over near the fire where the flames would help keep the pesky summertime bugs away from them. 

 

“Think now is a good time to tell them?” Jensen whispered to Jared when everyone was near the back of the house. 

 

Jared looked over to the families and nodded. “Yeah. Now that the kids are in bed and just the adults, I think so.”

 

“What are you two whispering about?” Sherri chastised them as everyone moved over to sit at the fire. 

 

“Nothing much Mom,” Jared assured her. 

 

“Why don’t I believe you then?” she looked at her skeptically. 

 

“Because she knows you too well son,” Gerry commented as he sat down next to his wife. 

 

“What’s going on?” Donna asked as she and Alan joined the others. 

 

“In a nutshell, we don’t know,” Josh teased her. Donna playfully swat at her eldest’s head. 

 

“Alright, look,” Jensen appeased them. “I do have something I want to say,” he looked over at Jared. “Or rather, Jared and I have something we wanted to tell ya’ll but we didn’t want to say anything until after the kids were in bed.”

 

“This sounds serious son,” Alan put forth. 

 

Jensen nodded at his father. “It kinda is Dad, and I appreciate it if ya’ll would hold off on the questions until after I said my piece.”

 

Everyone shared a quick glance and then looked towards their middle children. Jensen appeared nervous and rubbed his hands together. Jared reached over and put his hand on Jensen’s shoulder, calming him and letting him know he was right there. 

 

“Okay,” Jensen drew in a huge breathe and let it out slowly. “Here’s the thing. I know you guys are probably tired of hearing me say this, but I really wanted to let you all know that I am so extremely grateful for everything everyone has done to help me out these past eight weeks. I spent a lot of time sort of replaying the last two years of my life and I didn’t really like the playback I was seeing.”

 

“I hope that didn’t include me!” Jared pouted.

 

“No Jared,” Jensen assured him. “Those times were probably the only highlights of my life.” Jared beamed at the praise his friend gave him. Everyone chuckled at his antics. 

 

“But getting back to what I was saying,” Jensen continued. “I realized that I was a pretty horrible son, brother, friend, whatever to not just all of you, but a lot of other people as well. Dr. Mouton and Dr. Anders told me I still had a hard road ahead of me not just in facing every day without a drink, but in facing what I did and what I was to everyone involved in my life.”

 

“I’m sure they’ve told you this already Jensen,” Jeff spoke up. “But as long as you just take it one day at a time and not push yourself or get frustrated by any setback, that road will be a little bit easier.”

 

Jensen nodded. “They did Jeff and Dr. Anders and I will be working on how to navigate that road and rebuild some of my friendships.” He paused and looked over at Jared, who nodded for him to continue. 

 

“And speaking of friends and friendships and such, ya’ll know that Danni and I were divorced just as Jared and Gen were.” Jensen shook his head. “I can’t apologize enough to my family for putting you through all that crap with our dating and the engagement, not to mention the wedding! Everything was a fiasco because I was just too stupid to stand on my own two feet and take control of my own life.”

 

“And I’m apologizing to my family too,” Jared interrupted. “Like Jensen, I was afraid to speak up as well and let Hollywood tell me how to live my life.”

 

“It’s regrettable boys,” Alan put forth, then shrugged. “But it’s all part of the game you have to play in Hollywood. It’s what you learned from the experience that is the important part.”

 

Jensen nodded in agreement. “You’re right Dad, and both Jared and I learned a hard lesson. One we’ll be taking back with us and making it part of our contract negotiations.”

 

“How so?” Sherri asked. “What is it that the two of you are going to negotiate?”

 

“Jensen and I had a very long talk the first time I got to see him in rehab,” Jared admitted. “And we came to the same conclusion, that we were both idiots for letting the network and our managers talk us into breaking up and dating the girls just to keep a heterosexual image for the show.”

 

“And we both agreed that we’re going to sort of throw it right back in their faces,” Jensen added. He turned to Jared and this time grabbed his hand. “Because we both decided that we’re going to give our relationship another go at it.”

 

Donna and Sherri squealed and ran up to their sons. Mackenzie and Megan slapped each other with a high five while the men just looked at each other.

 

“So that’s your big news?” Gerri spoke up. “That you two are back together again?”

 

“It’s okay, isn’t it?” Jared looked over at his father, concern clouding is features. 

 

Gerri laughed. “Shit Jared, I would of sworn the two of you never broke up if it wasn’t for the fact that you both got married. We all knew they were fakes and you did them for the sake of your careers.”

 

“It really doesn’t come as a surprise to any of us that you both got divorced so quickly,” Josh added. “Neither one of you put up the happy on the home front image you would have if you were happy.”

 

Jeff snorted. “It was really evident when you look at any pictures on the internet of you with your wives. You guys looked like you wanted to be anywhere but next to them.”

 

“But you guys are really okay with us being together again?” Jensen asked once more. 

 

“Of course we are sweetie,” Donna assured him. “You two are always the happiest when you’re with each other.”

 

“You boys have something very special,” Sherri stated. “Not many people have that. You should count your blessings every day that you have each other.”

 

Jensen pulled Jared to him and wrapped an arm around his waist. “I do Sherri.”

 

Jared looked down into Jensen’s eyes and smiled at the warmth radiating from them. “Me too,” he whispered as he leaned down and kissed Jensen, completely unmindful of the two of them being surrounded by their family.

 

Tbc


	12. Chapter 11

  
Author's notes: There's some J2 action in this chapter finally!  


* * *

Chapter 11

 

As Jensen had predicted his return to Los Angeles one week after he was released from rehab was met with a whirlwind of activity. Between packing up what was left in his home, barely avoiding a confrontation with Danneel on that one day, to getting it all settled into Chris’ basement, right next to Jared’s stuff, Jensen was exhausted. As promised, the real estate agent had a buyer for the house and they wanted to close on it immediately, so Jensen got that taken care of. He now only had two weeks left before he and Jared had to return to Vancouver and one week after that to start shooting Season 7. 

 

It was at the end of the first week he was back in LA and he and Jared were getting supper ready. Chris had left a few hours earlier for a final meeting with the production offices before he headed up to Portland. Jensen asked him to invite Aldis home with him for supper so they could all catch up. When the doorbell rang while they were putting the meal together, both gave the other a puzzled look. 

 

“Maybe it’s Aldis getting here ahead of Chris,” Jensen suggested. 

 

Jared shrugged. “One way to find out.” He headed towards the door as the bell rang again. “Coming!”

 

Jensen was just putting the pan of lasagna in the oven when he heard a shout that could only come from Jared and then the sounds of a scuffle taking place in the other room. Hurriedly shoving the pan into the oven and slamming the door shut, Jensen ran into the living room to help his friend. 

 

“What the hell!” Jensen yelled as he came into the room to the sight of Jared lying on the floor with his hand held to his cheek and Jason Manns standing over him, both hands clenched in tight fists. Running over to Jared, he pushed Jason back and kneeled down next to his friend. 

 

“You alright?” he asked as he pried Jared’s hand off his face. Jensen could see a bruise already starting to form on Jared’s cheekbone. “Come on Jared. Go into the kitchen and get an ice pack for that cheek before it swells up too bad.” Helping his friend get up, he steered Jared towards the kitchen and pat him on the back. 

 

Once Jared was out of the room, Jensen turned on Jason. “Just what the hell was that all about?”

 

Jason fumed. “He had it coming. What gave him the right to keep it a secret of where you’ve been for the past 3 months.”

 

“He had every right,” Jensen countered just as angry. 

 

“Says who?” Jason shot back. “Not one of us knew that you’d been in an accident, not even Danneel, until Chris told us almost 8 weeks after it happened! Then we find out that he had you committed to some rehab place for alcoholism! Just what the hell kind of friend is he?”

 

“The kind of friend that is more concerned about my well-being than in how often I can get together with the group and get shit-faced drunk,” Jensen angrily shouted. “The kind of friend that knew I had a problem and was in denial over it and did the only thing he could think of to help me out. And he’s the kind of friend that made sure my family was taken care of and helped them out whenever they needed it.”

 

“We would have been there for them to, if we had known about it,” Jason stated. “But no. No one bothered to tell us a thing. You’re wife didn’t even know you were in the hospital for shits sake.”

 

“And whose fault was that?” Jensen replied sarcastically, crossing his arms over his chest. “She’s the one that left her cell phone at the house and no information on how to reach her.”

 

“Like I said,” Jason tried again. “If someone had only bothered to call and let me know, I knew how to get a hold of Danneel.”

 

“Well how the hell was anyone supposed to know that!” Jensen only shook his head. “Look, Jason. There’s a whole lot of stuff going on here that you know nothing about.”

 

“You mean like that fact that you filed for divorce from Danni not even one year after you got married?” Jason interrupted sarcastically. “Do you have any idea how upset she was? She spent days over at my place crying. I had to ask Marie to come and stay with us because I couldn’t get her to calm down. What the hell has gotten into you man?”

 

“I’m not ready to get into it all Jason. I only got out of rehab two weeks ago. Give me a break here.”

 

“No,” Jason shook his head. “You don’t get to ignore the question Jensen. We’ve been friends for far too long a time for you to brush me off like that. I take it Chris knows?”

 

Unknown to Jason and Jensen, Chris and Aldis had walked up to the still open front door and were on the other side when the arguing between the two started. Chris gestured to Aldis to keep quiet and the two just listened. When Chris heard his name mentioned, he decided it was time to step in.

 

“Yeah, but only because I called Jared when I couldn’t get hold of Jensen,” Chris casually mentioned as he walked through the front door.”

 

“So all I would have had to do was call Jared and he would have filled me in on what was going on?” Jason asked in disbelief. 

 

“No,” Jared answered from the doorway to the kitchen. “I still wouldn’t have told you.”

 

Chris grimaced when he saw the bruise on Jared’s cheek and turned his gaze to Jason. “You do that?” he nodded in Jared’s direction. 

 

“Yeah, and I’ll do it again if someone doesn’t start giving me some answers!” Jason demanded. 

 

Jensen threw his arms up in frustration and turned his back on Jason. Jared only turned around and headed back into the kitchen, Jensen frowning at his back as he watched him walk away. Chris, seeing the defeated look on Jared and the frustration on Jensen, stepped in to take control. 

 

“Jason, I think you should leave,” Chris told him, his voice quiet and low. 

 

“What? Why? I want some answers to my questions,” he argued. 

 

Jensen spun to face his friend. “No. I’m only going to say this once Jason. I’ve still got some things to work out and until I do, I’m keeping quiet about everything. I’m sorry you feel like you’ve been left out in the cold with only Chris and Jared knowing what’s been going on, but that’s just the way it is. If you still expect to be my friend, you’re just going to have to accept the terms and go on. Otherwise . . .” Jensen shrugged. 

 

Jason huffed, but knew he wasn’t going to get anything out of Jensen or Chris. “Fine. I’m leaving. Would you at least get together with me for a couple of drinks before you head back North?”

 

Jensen shook his head. “No. I’ve given up on the drinking. Besides, I’ve still got a lot of stuff to do before Jared and I head out this weekend. I really won’t have the time.”

 

Jason angrily shook his head and stormed out of the house. Chris shut the door behind him and leaned back against it. 

 

“Uhm . . .maybe I should just head on out,” Aldis suggested. “Sounds like ya’ll got some personal stuff to take care of.”

 

Jensen shook his head. “Don’t you even think about it Aldis. The only personal stuff I gotta take care of is making sure the lasagna doesn’t overcook.”

 

“Your homemade lasagna?” Aldis asked, his mouth almost drooling over the though. Jensen nodded and grinned. “I’m just gonna sit my butt right down in this here sofa and wait for the dinner bell to ring if that’s the case.”

 

Chris smacked his friend and co-star on the shoulder. “Wise choice my man.” Chris looked up just in time to see Jensen look towards the kitchen and frown.

 

“Jensen, you wanna take care of getting us some drinks?” Chris nodded towards the kitchen as he asked Jensen the question. “I’ll just get the game brought up here and Aldis and I will wait to be served.”

 

Jensen almost nodded in agreement knowing that Chris caught on that he wanted to speak to Jared alone. But Chris’ last sentence caught his attention before he left the room. “I’m the chef for the night here Kane, not your damned waiter. But, since I have to check and make sure the oven was actually turned on before the ruckus started out here, I’ll get them for ya’ll . . . this time.”

 

Chris only laughed and waved his friend off. 

 

Jensen walked into the kitchen to find Jared sitting at the table, icepack to his cheek, his head hanging down. He didn’t say a word right away, just walked over to the stove to check that it was turned on and also checked to make sure the lasagna pan didn’t flip over after he hastily threw it in the door. Seeing all looked good, he walked over to the refrigerator and pulled out the loaf of garlic bread and placed that on a tray to be ready to cook. It was only then that he sat down on a chair next to Jared. 

 

“You doin’ okay there?” he asked softly. Jared only nodded, his bangs falling further over his eyes. 

 

“Let me take a look at your cheek,” Jensen requested as he reached over and placed one hand over Jared’s. It was then that Jared finally lifted his head up enough to look at Jensen through his bangs. Jensen grew concerned over the defeated look in his friend’s eyes. “Jay, what’s wrong?”

 

Jared only sniffled and moved to sit back in the chair, lowering the ice pack as he did. “It’s nothing,” he replied half heartedly. 

 

“Come on Jay,” urged Jensen. “I know this has to do with what Jason said to you. Right?” After a few moments with no response, Jensen prodded a bit more. “Jared, please. Don’t keep secrets from me. I thought we agreed to start over, fresh slate and all that. Keeping secrets from each other before didn’t exactly help our situation.”

 

Jared sighed and leaned back in his chair. “I know we did. You’re right.”

 

Jensen nodded. “What’s going on here Jared? You seem to be more upset over Jason taking a swing at you than you’d normally be.”

 

Jared sighed again. “It wasn’t just Jason. I didn’t say anything about this because you were still in rehab and I didn’t want this to sidetrack you in any way. I wanted you outta there after the eight weeks.”

 

Jensen only nodded. 

 

“After the divorce papers got delivered to Danneel and she came home to find your mom and sister clearing out the place, she came over to my place later that night and really reamed me a new ass. She basically blamed me for all the problems you two had,” Jared admitted. “It was about a day or two after that I started getting phone calls from some of your other friends pretty much yelling and screaming at me for having you committed.”

 

Jensen’s jaw clenched in anger. “You mean Danneel told everyone what was going on?”

 

“She told them her version of the story,” Jared corrected. “Of course, it was slanted to make her look like the poor widow and me the marriage breaker.”

 

“I am so sorry for that Jared,” Jensen apologized. “Why didn’t you tell me all this when I got out of therapy?”

 

Jared shrugged. “It was only those few days, and after that, I never heard from them again. I really didn’t give it another thought cause it’s not like I hang out with them all the time. The ones that really needed to know the truth, Chris and I told and they’ve all been great with everything. Even Steve the one time I’ve seen him since the whole thing started, just gave me that silent look of his and then let it go.”

 

Jensen rubbed his temples while he thought things through. “Alright Jared. But from now on, if any of my friends give you a hard time, you tell me about it. I have to deal with each one of them in my own way. It’s part of my therapy. But I can’t do that if you don’t tell me these things. So I really need you to be open about things with me, okay?”

 

“You’re right, I’m sorry,” Jared apologized again. “I didn’t think about it from your viewpoint, I was just trying to protect you so you wouldn’t slip up too soon.”

 

Jensen smiled, leaned over and wrapped his arm around Jared’s broad shoulders. “And I do appreciate it. But it’s time for me to take some of that load off your shoulders and deal with it myself. It’s the only way I can get past all this.” He leaned closer and gently bumped his forehead against Jared’s. “Okay?”

 

Jared smiled. “Okay.” He reached up to cup Jensen’s cheek and drew him in for a kiss. Jensen no sooner started to return the kiss when a voice interrupted them.

 

“Aww, man! Ya’ll need to not be doing that in front of me,” Aldis playfully teased. “It could scar me for life and that would not be a good thing.”

 

Jared chuckled. “Aldis, you got scarred for life the day you were born. Now what are you doing walking in on people trying to have a moment alone with their boyfriend?”

 

Aldis shook his head and put his hands over his ears. “Damn Jared! Stop that. My poor innocent ears.”

 

Jensen laughed this time. “Ain’t nothing innocent about those ears of yours boy, especially if you’ve been hanging out with Chris.”

 

“That’s true,” agreed Aldis. He walked over to the refrigerator. “Ya’ll were just taking too long in here and I’ve got me a powerful thirst.” He leaned in and came out with a beer in each hand. “So I decided to come in and take care of that problem myself.” He grinned at his two friends. 

 

“One of those better before me!” Chris’s voice rang out from the living room. 

 

Aldis winked at the two J’s as he answered back. “Ain’t more than one in here man, and since I’m the guest around here, I think I should be welcome to it.”

 

Chris strode into the kitchen and snorted. “Yeah right. Like there is only ever going to be just one beer in my fridge.” He maneuvered around Aldis and grabbed his own beer. 

 

Aldis looked ashamed for a moment and lowered his bottle. “Uhm, I’m sorry Jensen. We shouldn’t be drinking in front of you like this.”

 

Jensen walked over to Aldis and gripped his shoulder. “It’s fine, man. Don’t ever apologize for it. It’s my problem to deal with, no one else’s.” He nudged the hand that held the beer. “Drink up and enjoy it.”

 

Aldis smiled then and took a long pull on the bottle. That seemed to break up any lingering tension in the room and soon, all four friends were chatting about the upcoming season for both shows. They enjoyed a delicious dinner and played video games, Jared and Jensen pairing up against the other two and beating them in game after game. 

 

It was well after midnight when Jensen finally had to call it a night. “I’m sorry guys,” he apologized as he yawned. “I’ve gotten so used to being in bed by 10 during rehab that I just can’t stay awake any longer.”

 

“Yeah, I should probably call a cab to get me home,” Aldis admitted. “I’ve had a bit too much to drink.”

 

“Why not just crash here, man,” Chris offered. “Be even later by the time you’d finally get home.”

 

Aldis looked uncomfortable for a moment. “No offense man but your couch isn’t exactly comfortable for sleeping on and you only have three bedrooms.”

 

“Yeah,” Chris drawled. “So you don’t have to sleep in the couch. You can take the guest bedroom upstairs.”

 

“But where would Jared or Jensen sleep than? Man, I don’t want to steal one of their beds,” complained Aldis. 

 

Jared only raised an eyebrow at Aldis while Jensen and Chris grinned in amusement. 

 

“What?” Aldis looked at each of them wondering what he was missing. Jensen didn’t say a word, only walked over to Jared and put an arm around his waist. 

 

“Ready to head to bed?” he asked. Jared only nodded and the two turned together and headed towards the guest bedroom on the main floor. 

 

Aldis suddenly got it. “Oh man!” he whined. “I told ya’ll to quit that shit around me.”

 

Soft chuckles were the only sound that drifted back towards them, followed by the sound of a door closing. 

 

Chris stood up and started shutting down lights and the tv and locking the door. “Aren’t you carrying that drama a bit too far?” he asked his friend. 

 

Aldis grinned and followed Chris up the stairs. “Nah. They know I’m only funning with them. To be honest, I’m glad to see them back together again.”

 

“Yeah, me too,” agreed Chris. “They’re both good for each other.” He paused outside the door to his bedroom. “You need anything for tonight? I got a pair of sweatpants that should fit you.”

 

Aldis shook his head. “Nah. I’m good here. Good night Chris.” He waved and closed the door behind him. Chris did the same and the house settled down for the night.

 

***** 

 

It was to the sound of the ringing of his cell phone early the next morning that pulled Jared from his deep sleep. Fumbling for his phone, he opened it up just as the call rolled over into voicemail. Jared waited until the message light came on then pulled up the voicemail. He frowned when he listened to the message left by Eric.

 

Sighing, he put his phone down and turned back to the bed. He smiled down at the sight of Jensen draped across his chest, snuggling close to him. Jared glanced at the clock and saw that he really needed to wake his friend up if they were to meet Eric as the message indicated. 

 

Jared reached over and lightly ran a finger down Jensen’s nose. He giggled as Jensen, still asleep, wrinkled up and twitched his nose. Jared ran his finger down it again and chuckled a little deeper when Jensen did it again. Jared was about to do it one more time when Jensen’s sleepy voice stopped him. 

 

“Do it again and I’ll bite that finger off,” Jensen sleepily warned.

 

“There’s something else I’d rather have you nibbling on,” Jared whispered in Jensen’s ear. He grinned when he felt the shudder run through Jensen’s body.

 

Jensen finally opened his eyes and looked up into Jared’s hazel eyes. He yawned and stretched, moaning slightly as his morning wood rubbed against Jared’s stomach. “Whatever happened to starting all over and taking things slow?”

 

Jared’s eyebrows shot up in amusement. “Oh, okay. I didn’t think we were going to include lovemaking in that equation since we never had any problems with that part of our relationship.” He sighed and sat up, his back to Jensen. “But, you’re right. We both agreed to start over, so we shouldn’t be doing this.”

 

Jared let out a yelp when he felt Jensen’s arms wrap around his shoulders and he was pulled back down onto the bed. Jensen quickly straddled him and draped himself completely over Jared, sucking in a breath as he felt Jared’s own morning erection rub against his. His hips moved on their own accord, slowly rubbing both of their erections together. 

 

“Don’t even think about stopping this,” Jensen warned as he kissed Jared deeply and passionately. 

 

Jared returned the kiss just as deeply and began to arch his own hips to bring their hardening cocks closer together. The memory of the message from Eric was completely forgotten as Jared brought his hand down between their bodies and gripped both cocks in his hand and began to stroke them up and down. He ran his other hand down Jensen’s back until he reached the firm cheeks of Jensen’s ass. Massaging the cheeks while at the same time, his index finger began to probe the hole, teasing the ring of muscle around the rim with gentle pushes. Jared didn’t try to push his finger in because it wasn’t lubed and he would never hurt Jensen by pushing in a dry finger. So he contented himself with using his finger to lightly rim the hole, occasionally teasing it with a slight push in. 

 

“AH GOD!” Jensen cried out and threw his head back at the shot of ecstasy that coursed through his veins at Jared’s ministrations. 

 

Dropping his head down once more and taking Jared’s lips, this time in a bruising kiss, both men quickly synced up the thrusting of their hips to match the movement of Jared’s hand. Jared broke the kiss when he felt his balls tightening up and he moved his hand faster, reveling in the feel of Jensen’s hard, but silky organ pulsing in the palm of his hand. It only took a few more strokes and thrusts before Jared felt his orgasm exploding from his cock, the pearly juices running between his fingers coating both the cocks. 

 

Jared’s own explosion was followed almost immediately by Jensen’s, who cried out when his release was achieved. Jensen continued to snap his hips in a thrusting motion as Jared milked out every drop of cum he could before Jensen finally dropped his head down to Jared’s shoulder. Both men were breathing heavily, sweat slicked with their joined cum drying quickly on each other. 

 

Jensen turned his head towards Jared’s neck and lay small kisses along the strong jawline. “Never have any problems with this part,” he murmured. 

 

Jared chuckled and wrapped his arms around Jensen’s back. Feeling his friend shiver a bit, Jared reached out and pulled the sheet over them both. Jensen made a small whimper of content when he felt the sheet cover him up. The two just lay in content bliss. 

 

***** 

 

Chris walked up quietly to the door of the guestroom and put his ear to it to try and hear any sounds coming from within. He had come down earlier to bang on the door and wake Jared and Jensen up, but got no closer than raising his hand to knock when he heard Jensen cry out ‘OH GOD’. Smirking to himself, Chris walked away and decided to come back later. 

 

It was now later and this time Chris pounded on the door. “You better be decent or I’m gonna see a whole lot more than I should!” he yelled out. Grabbing the doorknob he opened the door up expecting to see his friends scrambling to cover themselves. Instead, he was presented the site of the two of them laying on top of one another. He chuckled and shook his head in amusement. 

 

“Just so you know, you’re doing the laundry,” he teased. 

 

Jared chuckled, but Jensen only raised a hand and flipped his friend the middle finger. 

 

“Stop that!” Jared lightly chastised and swatted at Jensen’s hand. “We like Chris, we want to keep Chris happy, remember?” Jensen only snorted as a reply. 

 

“What’s up Chris?” Jared asked. 

 

“Yeah, uhm, Jensen left his cell phone in the living room and it was ringing,” Chris explained. “I answered the call when I saw it was Eric. Told him Jensen was still sleeping. Eric left a message about needing to see him at the offices at 11 am. I figured I’d better tell him since he’s only got about 30 minutes before he’ll need to leave.”

 

Jared nodded. “I know. He called my cell and left a message saying the same thing.”

 

“Ookay,” Chris shrugged. “Just thought it sounded important.”

 

“Thanks Chris,” Jensen mumbled. “We’ll be right out.”

 

“Coffee’s made. I gotta get going myself with Aldis to the studio,” Chris replied. “Catch up with you guys sometime later today.” He waved goodbye and closed the door as he walked out. 

 

Jensen sniffled and then slid of Jared. “So did Eric give any more details on why he needed to see us?”

 

Jared shook his head. “No. But he did say something about meeting up with us and our managers to review our new contracts.”

 

Jensen finally looked at Jared and could see the anxiety over the pending meeting. “Hey,” he nudged his friend’s arm. “It’ll be okay.”

 

“Will it Jen?” Jared asked, his forehead wrinkling up in concern. “I haven’t told my manager yet about Gen and me. She isn’t going to be happy one bit after all the work the agency went through to set up the fake marriage and bearding and crap.”

 

“I haven’t told mine either,” Jensen admitted. “She knows about the rehab though. I’m betting she probably knows about the divorce too since Danni couldn’t keep her mouth shut.”

 

Jared chewed on his bottom lip for a moment. “Do we tell them then? I mean about both the divorces and us, or just the divorces or what?”

 

“I want to tell them about both,” Jensen was adamant, if not slightly angry. “They screwed with our lives for over two years and made a bigger mess out of it than it should have been. I’m tired of being told who I can and can’t be seen with. It was fine when I was younger and too stupid to know better, but now . . .”

 

He paused and Jared took that moment to add his thoughts. “I’m with you in whatever you want do to Jen. They not only hurt us when they made up step up the bearding and marry the girls, they hurt our families too. That is something that doesn’t sit well with me and I won’t let it happen again.”

 

Jensen nodded in agreement. “Good. Then I think its time we got ready and started taking back control of our ‘Hollywood’ lives today.”

 

tbc


	13. Chapter 12

  
Author's notes: I'm not really happy with how Chapter 12 turned out, but I wanted to get this story finished. I may or may not write the sequel, not sure at this point.  


* * *

Chapter 12

 

Thirty minutes later found the boys in Jensen’s truck headed towards the CW offices. Each was thinking through how they were going to break the news to their managers and Eric and kept running scenarios through their heads. Jared finally realized he was only confusing himself more and spoke up. 

 

“So, do we need to talk about how we’re going to drop our news on everyone?” Jared queried. “I mean, we really can’t just walk in there and say ‘Hey! I’m divorced now and dating Jensen!’”

 

“I’m thinking we just sort of play it by ear and see what comes up,” Jensen suggested. “No sense in causing a big uproar right away if we don’t need to. I’m not too concerned about my manager knowing anything since Danni’s been kinda busy with her own show and some movies and stuff.”

 

“I know Gen’s been back in Sun Valley with her family ever since I gave her the papers,” Jared admitted. “From what I can tell, she’s complying with the gag order which surprises me. She has to have gotten in touch with her manager to try and start working again. She made the decision to stop working and only hurt herself in doing that. She’s had no source of income that I know of, unless her parents have been sending her money.” He shrugged. “It’s her problem now. My manager will tell her when she can talk about the divorce openly.”

 

Jensen nodded. “Sounds like a plan then. If something is mentioned during the meeting where we feel we need to give the word, we’ll do it together.”

 

Jared smiled and reached over to take Jensen’s free hand into his own. Jensen gave him a brief glance and smiled before turning his attention back to the road. It was shortly after that Jensen pulled into the parking garage for the building CW was in and he quickly found a spot. 

 

After turning the car off, both boys sat for a minute. Jared finally drew in a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. “Ready to kick some ass?”

 

Jensen chuckled and nodded. “You know it!”

 

***** 

 

Walking into Eric’s office usually never bothered either Jensen or Jared. This time, however, they both sort of felt like they’d been sent to the principal’s office and were about to get a detention. Eric’s assistant Sharon greeted them like long lost friends.

 

“Hey guys!” Sharon happily greeted. “It’s been a long time since the two of you darkened my doorway.”

 

Jared grabbed her up in his usual exuberant hug and swung her around. Sharon squealed and laughed. When Jared set her down again, she was a little breathless and took a moment to compose herself. She slapped Jared on the chest. “You big oaf! I hate it when you do that!”

 

Jared grinned. “Nah, you love it. Don’t deny it. I heard you squeal.”

 

“She squealed because you were squeezing her like a python you big jerk,” Jensen stated while he walked up to Sharon and gave her a hug as well. 

 

“Is Eric in yet?” Jensen asked. 

 

Sharon nodded. “Yep, Eric, Bob, Sera and both your managers are already in the conference room. They’ve been discussing your current contracts.”

 

Jensen sighed. “Guess we better get in there then.” He looked to Jared who nodded, looking a bit nervous. 

 

“Let’s go,” Jared agreed. 

 

They walked into the room together, both feeling pretty nervous when all conversation stopped and everyone turned to them. 

 

“Hey guys!” Eric greeted. He waved them over to the table. “Grab a chair. You both came at a great time. We’ve been talking about changes to your contracts for the new season.”

 

The boys sat down and the discussion continued on for a bit about their current contracts and what changes the boys and their managers would like to see, including raises. 

 

After about an hour, the discussions slowed and the managers started packing up their briefcases. Sera and Bob left to attend other meetings. Jensen caught Eric nodding to both of their managers and wondered what was going on. Before he had a chance to say a word though, Eric cleared his throat to get everyone’s attention. 

 

Before your managers leave fellas, there’s another matter I wanted to bring up. Jared, this more specifically involves you though,” Eric began.

 

Jared frowned and looked over to his own manager and then to Jensen, who just shrugged. “Uhm . . . okay. What’s going on?”

 

Eric let out a deep breath and leaned forward. “Here’s the thing, Jared. In the 7th season opener, we plan on bringing back an old character.” He paused for a moment. “We’re going to be bringing Ruby back for just the one episode.”

 

Jared felt like his heart stopped beating for a moment. “Oh.” Was all he could manage to say. 

 

Eric continued. “Thing is, she’ll be coming back in the form of Katie Cassidy and not Genevieve. Katie’s already agreed and is looking forward to being on the show again. We wanted to make you aware of it because the news is going to break soon and I’m sure Genevieve is going to be pretty pissed about it.”

 

“You can be sure of it,” Jared agreed. He looked to Jensen and the two exchanged a silent agreement. “Thing is Eric, It’s not really going to be a problem for me.”

 

Eric looked skeptical. “How is that? You know as well as I do that Gen has been trying to justify bringing Ruby back several times during the past two seasons.”

 

Jared clasped his hands together on the table and nodded. “What I should have said is it’s not my problem anymore. You see, over the summer hiatus, I filed for and finalized my divorce from Genevieve.”

 

“You did WHAT!” Jared’s manager exclaimed. “How could you do that without checking with me first!”

 

Jared raised his eyebrows at that. “Maybe because it was none of your business. Or maybe it was because if you guys hadn’t pushed and pushed for us to get married in the first place, you would have noticed that I didn’t love her, didn’t really want to be with her. But you were so adamant about pushing a het image for me that you didn’t stop to consider how this would affect my personal life!”

 

Jensen calmly reached over and placed a hand on Jared’s forearm. Jared paused when he felt Jensen lightly squeeze his arm and he used the strength from the grip to ground himself before his anger got out of control. 

 

Jared’s manager sat back in disbelief. “I don’t believe this. All that hard work I and the PR teams did to portray you in a heterosexual image, you just threw it out the window! What the hell were you thinking?”

 

Jared slammed his chair back, stood up and placed his hands on the table. He smiled to himself when his manager’s eyes grew slightly bigger and he sat back at the imposing presence Jared present when he was angry. “What was I thinking? I’ll tell you exactly what I was thinking. I was thinking that my family, MY FAMILY would be glad to see that self-centered, spoiled rotten brat out of their lives for good and I would be allowed to go home for things like hiatus, Christmas and family weddings without it being anything more than a huge whine fest by my wife. I was thinking that it would be nice to be able to come home at night after a long hard day of working and not have someone nagging at me for putting my feet up on my own furniture, or complaining about the dog hair blowing around the house, or about me wanting to visit with some of my own friends once in a while. I was thinking that it would be nice to only have to worry about being myself and not some puppet with her pulling my strings.”

 

Jared’s voice had gotten progressively louder and by the end of his rant, he was literally shouting at his agent. Jensen stood up and positioned himself between Jared and the table edge. Eric had stood up as well and was gripping Jared on the forearm. 

 

“Calm down there buddy,” Eric urged. 

 

Jared swung his head to face Eric and was ready to redirect his anger towards him when he felt a hand land in the middle of his chest and apply a little pressure. Jared turned to see Jensen had placed his hand on his chest. He looked up into his friend’s eyes and saw the pleading look there. Jared calmed down and sat back down again. 

 

“Well,” his manger huffed. “You don’t seem to be too appreciative of our efforts to save your career, Jared. You were one step away from coming out of the closet and we stopped it. We have a lot of time and money invested to you and we were not about to let you throw all that away.”

 

Jared snorted and Jensen could tell he was gearing up for another rant. Jensen’s manager, Monica, caught the same look and interrupted them. 

 

“Well, is it safe for me to assume then, Jensen, that you’re going to be next in ending your marriage too?” she asked. “I mean you two always do pretty much the same thing the other has done.”

 

“Actually,” Jensen admitted. “It’s already done. My parents took care of filing the paperwork while I was in rehab. My last week there the divorce was finalized.”

 

Monica sat back and huffed a bit. 

 

“I’m sorry Monica. But I guess you could say Jared’s reasons are pretty much the same as mine,” Jensen stated. 

 

Monica nodded and glanced at Jensen in contemplation. After a moment, she spoke up again. “I’m guessing that’s not all you have to say to us, is it?”

 

Jensen and Jared traded a look. “No, it isn’t,” Jared agreed. 

 

“You’re dating each other again, aren’t you,” Jared’s manager accused. 

 

“Yes, we are,” Jared replied. “And this time, we’re setting the rules for how we behave in public.”

 

Jared’s manager started to say something, but Jensen interrupted. “That’s just the way it is. We were stupid enough to listen to you guys the last time and you turned our personal lives into a circus. You had us lying to our families and friends, not to mention the girls and their families. You made us put up a front to the fans but they saw right through it and caused us even more negative publicity.” He snorted. “Hell, I’ve got some psychopath fan out there doing all she can to convince everyone she’s actually married to me and her daughter is married to Jared!”

 

“Thing is, we’re tired of being tabloid fodder for Ted Casablanca and other gossip columnists,” Jared added. “We aren’t going to come flying out of the closet bearing rainbow flags or anything like that. But we are going to live our personal lives the way we want.”

 

Jared’s manager only nodded, stood up and stuffed papers into his briefcase. “I’m sorry Jared. But if you are going to refuse to do what I tell you, I don’t see how we can continue to represent you.” He dropped Jared’s contract on the table in front of him and left. 

 

Jared snorted and shook his head as he watched his manager walk out. Before he could say anything, Monica reached over and grabbed the paperwork. 

 

“What are you doing Monica?” Jensen asked. 

 

“Jared is going to need a manager,” she stated offhandedly while she looked through the paperwork. She finally looked up at both boys. “And if you two are going to continue on this path, it would probably be better if you both were represented by the same manager. That is, if you want to sign up with me Jared.”

 

“This is all moving a bit too fast for me,” Eric complained as he shook his head. 

 

“I’m sorry Eric,” Jensen apologized. “But during my time in rehab, I realized that the fact I was letting other people dictate to me how I would live my personal life was part of the reason why I started drinking so heavy. Taking back control of that part of my life is one of the major steps in my recovery.”

 

“Eric, like I said before, Jensen and I aren’t saying that we’re planning on going public with our relationship,” Jared explained. “Nor are we going to go nuts with any PDA’s. We both have already told our families and they’re perfectly happy with it. We felt it was important that we let you and our managers know as well.” He waved his hand at the door of the conference room. “I didn’t know the result was going to be me getting dumped by my manager.”

 

“Jared, I’m not saying you made a bad decision in signing up with them,” Monica began. “They are an excellent company, as evidenced by your resume. However, their executive management is pretty conservative and they really take a negative opinion of anyone in Hollywood who decides to come out of the closet.”

 

“Is this going to be a problem for you Mon?” Jensen asked. 

 

Monica sighed and thought about the situation. “About you two admitting to me that you’re involved again with each other? No, that doesn’t bother me Jensen. I have a few other clients that are homosexual. Like you, they just decided to keep it quiet.”

 

“That’s good to know,” Jensen sighed in relief. “But will this be a problem for you?”

 

“Yeah,” Jared agreed. “I don’t want this to cause you any problems Monica.”

 

“It’s not really my problem Jared,” Monica explained. “It’s . . . “ she paused, trying to figure out how to explain it. 

 

“I think what she means,” Eric took up the explanation. “Is having the same exact manager represent two leads of the same show might cause some problems between the two of you.”

 

Monica nodded. “Exactly. I mean, if I don’t negotiate the exact same deal for you Jared that I do for Jensen, you might question why or complain that I favor him more than I do you.”

 

Jared nodded in understanding, then smirked. “You mean like me saying I should be get paid more than him because I’m the bigger actor here?”

 

Monica looked a little flustered at how to answer that. Eric and Jensen however, had caught the teasing gleam in Jared’s eye and knew he was messing around. Jensen whacked him on the arm. “Jerk.”

 

“Bitch,” Jared shot back without really thinking. 

 

Monica looked back and forth between the three of them until she realized she had been played. “Very funny fellas. I can see representing the two of you will keep me hopping.” She paused and glanced down at the two contracts. “Look, what I can do is this. Jared, I’ll be your primary representative at least while we get the necessary paperwork completed and signed. Once that’s done, I’ll have Jerry, my right hand assistant, take over. You can work with him directly. My company overall, will represent you both, but you’ll each have a different manager within. That should help alleviate any problems. Does that work for you?”

 

“I’m fine with it Monica,” Jared agreed. 

 

“I think you’ll find that Jared is a lot like me,” Jensen added. “We have managers because we need them. We both know exactly what you do and when it comes to our professional careers, we go with the flow. But make no mistake, Monica. I could say it was because we both were too young and naive before and just listened to what you guys said about our personal lives, but no more. As long as it stays professional, we’ll let you handle it. But when it comes to our personal lives, we are in charge. We’ll listen to your suggestions, take your advice when warranted and try our damndest to not cause you any headaches. But we won’t let you take complete control again and tell us what to do, who to date and who we can and cannot marry. Are we in agreement?”

 

“Well,” Monica sat back and contemplated Jensen. “I think that’s the very first time you ever stood up for yourself so aggressively with me Jensen. And I respect your position as well as Jared’s. Like I said, you’re not the only gay actors I’m dealing with. All I ask is that you please be as upfront with me as you can and I’ll do the same to you.”

 

Jared and Jensen looked to each other for a moment, then both nodded to Monica. 

 

Jared turned to Eric. “Boss, are you okay with all this?”

 

“Guess I’ll have to be,” Eric contemplated. He then shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t really think it’s going to affect much on our end. But I’ll ask the same thing as Monica. Please try and be discreet on set and if you run into any problems, like overhearing a crew member talking or even speculating about your personal lives, please come and talk to me or Sera or Bob.”

 

“Well, there is another matter we would like to bring up,” Jensen tentatively brought up. 

 

“Do I need to be here for this?” Monica asked. 

 

“No. This is strictly a network thing,” Jensen told her. 

 

“Okay. I’ve got to run to another meeting then.” Monica stood up and said her goodbyes to the boys. Just before she walked out, Monica turned and addressed them both. “Oh and remember, we need to get together and come up with a press release about your divorces. The sooner the better.” She walked through the door and left. 

 

“Okay. So what’s this other matter?” Eric asked puzzled. “You said it was a network issue.”

 

“Maybe not really a network issue,” Jared explained. “More like a uhm . . . bodyguard issue.”

 

“Oh,” Eric looked surprised. “Has Clif been giving you problems? I thought you liked him?”

 

“We do Eric,” Jensen took up the explanation. “It’s just that, Clif is fine as our bodyguard at the studio and as our driver while we’re working. But when Jared and I really sat down and thought about it, the way Clif wormed his way into our personal lives, going on vacation with us, being at all the conventions and stuff.”

 

“It kinda goes beyond that of a regular bodyguard,” Jared picked up. “I mean, I talked with Tom Welling and he said Jensen and I are the only two CW stars that have our own, pretty much live-in bodyguard.”

 

“You guys have him because of how crazy your fans can be,” Eric reiterated. “Plus, with the fact that about 90% of our shooting is done on location, there’s bound to be fans that stumble across it. We’re just trying to play it safe here.”

 

“And we appreciate it,” Jensen quickly added. “Look, Jared and I both know that we probably brought a lot of this on ourselves by asking or inviting Clif to come with us. We KNOW that. But the fact of the matter is, well, we want it to stop.”

 

“We also aren’t really appreciative of the fact that Clif seems to have his own little group of followers that are trolling some of the gossip sites and reporting back to him what is being said,” Jared stated. “We have no way of really knowing this for sure, but Jensen and I sorta wondered exactly how much of all this crap we’ve dealt with in the past few years has been due to Clif’s involvement with those fans and those sites.” 

 

Eric nodded. “Yeah. I’ve gotten a few complaints myself about Clif’s constant twittering and Facebook antics myself. It seems like some of our crew caught some fans that slipped past him because he was texting or something and not paying attention like he’s paid to do.”

 

“I hadn’t heard about that,” Jared noted. 

 

Eric drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly, thinking things through. “So what exactly is it do you guys want to have happen with Clif? Do you want him fired and replaced with someone else?”

 

“No. Nothing that drastic,” Jensen quickly responded. “Like we said, we like Clif and all. We just want some boundaries set as far as what his duties are to be.”

 

“And those duties are to only be when we’re on set or driving to and from location,” Jared interrupted. 

 

“And at conventions,” Eric added. He noted the looked shared between the two boys. “Okay, how about at the conventions held here in the states. You guys have been really good about only scheduling the overseas conventions during summer hiatus and then taking a vacation afterwards. I’m guessing this means you’ll be taking them together and would prefer to not have a chaperone?”

 

Jensen blushed while Jared seemed embarrassed. “I don’t really think we need one, Eric.” 

 

“Alright. I’ll have a chat with Clif and make amends for you guys,” Eric agreed. “I’ll have to deal with his union as well so let me handle it and if he has any comments or questions about it, ya’ll can get together afterwards and chat. Does that sound fair?”

 

Jared sniggered. “You’ve been hanging around us for too long Eric. You said ‘ya’ll!”. 

 

Jensen smacked Jared’s arm, but he too was chuckling. “Yeah, that sounds fair to us Eric. I’m pretty sure he’s going to have something to say about it all.”

 

“Undoubtedly. So, is this it then or do you both have any other news you want to drop on my today that will give me nightmares tonight,” Eric lamented. 

 

“No,” Jared admitted. “I think we’ve given you enough to deal with today.”

 

Eric only shook his head. “Then get the hell outta here and let me get back to my real work.”

 

The boys stood up and headed towards the door. 

 

“Oh and uh guys?” Both turned and looked expectantly at their boss.

 

Eric looked embarrassed. “I just wanted to say that for the record, I’m glad you two stood up for yourselves and did what you did. I wasn’t really thrilled with what the network and your managers forced us to do to you both.” He walked over to them. “You have something really special and unique, something that I have never seen between two people before and I know it’s strong enough to get you through the rough road you’re going to have ahead. I’ll do all I can to help you get through it. I’m just glad that our enforced marriages and attempts at separating the two of you didn’t work.”

 

Jensen smiled at Jared and took his hand. He then turned to Eric. “I’m glad to hear you’re on our side Eric.” 

 

“Me too,” Jared agreed. “And we promise, we won’t make it as hard on you as we did the last time. We both learned a lot and learned our lesson.”

 

“Then get outta here and start practicing,” Eric gestured towards the door and shooed the two of them out.

 

They waited until they got back into their car and were alone before speaking. 

 

“Well, that was interesting,” Jared admitted.

 

Jensen threw him a puzzled look. “How so?”

 

Jared shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess maybe I was expecting there to be a lot of yelling and finger pointing and threats about us.”

 

“I hear ya,” agreed Jensen. “But I guess I’m not too surprised about how Eric and Monica took the news. I kinda suspected that Eric wasn’t really happy with how we were being treated by the network.”

 

“How could you know that?” Jared asked as they climbed into Jensen’s truck. 

 

“I don’t know,” Jensen paused before starting the truck. “I guess it was just in the way he said or did some things. Or how he allowed the writers to sneak in some of the gay or slash references in some of the past storylines. Ya know, kinda like he knew what we were up to and it was his way of saying he’s okay with it.”

 

Jared thought about that for a moment, then nodded. “Yeah, I guess when you put it that way and really think about it, you’re right.”

 

Before Jensen could reply, his cell phone rang. Pulling it out, he noticed the caller ID read Monica. “Huh,” he grunted before answering. “Hey Monica. Did we forget something?”

 

“No, we didn’t Jensen,” Monica stated. “Can you put me on speaker so Jared can hear too?”

 

“Yeah sure.” He handed his phone to Jared. “Put this on speaker for me. Monica wants to talk to both of us.” Jared nodded and switched it over. 

 

“Here’s the thing fellas,” Monica started. “As I was sitting in my next meeting I had a thought. You’ll have to tell me your honest opinion of it cause I don’t know where things stand between you and your exes.”

 

Jared shared a surprised look with Jensen. “What was your idea Monica?” he asked. 

 

“What I was thinking was, instead of issuing a press release and sending it out to the rags, what would you guys think about announcing your divorces at the convention in Vancouver in August?”

 

Jensen was glad at that moment that his truck was still parked. “You want us to do WHAT!” he exclaimed in surprise. Jensen looked over at Jared who was sitting there opening and closing his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but nothing was coming through. 

 

Both could hear Monica sigh over the phone. “Look at it this way. If we send out a press release to the gossip sites and such, not all of them will get it at the same time, and not all of them will give it the same level of attention as another. You’ll end up with fans screaming press stunt or fake marriages all along or whatever. But if the two of you announce it in front of a couple of hundred fans, word will spread through the fandom like crazy.”

 

“It’ll be up on youtube in a matter of minutes,” commented Jared. 

 

“Monica, you know what your suggestion is going stir up, don’t you?” Jensen asked. “You’re not suggesting that Jared and I come out at the convention, are you?”

 

“No, no. No, not at all. I know damned well this is going to start up the J2 stuff again,” Monica admitted. “But it’ll give us some time to put a spin on the stories you’ll tell. Maybe something along the lines of Jensen you told Jared first about proposing to Danni because you were being pushed into it from all sides. Then we can say the networks “suggested” to Jared that being married will put Jensen in a positive light and he should consider doing the same thing and isn’t it convenient that Genevieve was right there and you two were such good friends. You felt kinda pushed by the networks as well and agreed to it knowing it was nothing more than an arranged marriage.”

 

“I don’t know Monica,” Jensen was hesitant. “I mean that would explain the get togethers, assuming you could get the network to agree to play their part in it.”

 

“That meeting I had to leave you for was with the network. The suits were in a bit of a panic about how to announce you spending your hiatus in alcohol rehab, Jensen. When I told them about the divorces, they went into full blown panic. I sorta used that to our advantage and spun the idea to them. They agreed to play the part of pushing you both into this for the sake of your careers and for the show. And quite honestly, Jensen, from the talks we had before you got married, your story isn’t too far from the actual truth. Jared, you’re story will paint both you and Gen as being the victims of power hungry network executives and your managers. You’ll both get sympathetic accolades from the fans. I really don’t see how going this route can hurt anyone.”

 

Jared and Jensen looked at each other and shrugged, neither quite sure how to respond. “Monica, can Jensen and I have some time to think about this?”

 

“Definitely. You may even be able to come up with something better or more plausible than that. Since you both are heading back to Vancouver to start the season, how about I give you a week to talk it over and get back to me right before you start filming.”

 

“Yeah, that’ll work,” Jared agreed. “We can talk about it on the drive up and it’ll still give us a few days to look at it from all angles.” 

 

Jensen nodded. “That’ll solve the problem about the status of our marriages. But it will still cause widespread speculation by the fans about our, what do they call it, hat or het image.”

 

“I was thinking about that too,” Monica added. “I supposed you could both say that you’re aware of the J2 rumors and are flattered by them, however the stories are a bit more glamorous than you’re real lives and right now you’re both just trying to pick up the pieces.”

 

“That sounds just a bit too lame,” Jared commented. 

 

“Maybe, but it also doesn’t give any type of a definitive answer as to whether or not we are or have been involved with each other,” Jensen replied. “And technically, it is true.”

 

“Yeah,” Jared somewhat hesitantly agreed. 

 

“And besides, if some point in the future you both decide to come out and announce your relationship, those same fans are probably not going to be the least bit surprised that they were right all along. It’s the fans that are adamant that you two were happily married and deeply in love with your wives that will be hurt the most. You two aren’t the first gay actors to spin some tales to their fans and you won’t be the last.”

 

“Alright Monica,” Jensen gave in. “We’ll think it all through and call you back the weekend before we start filming. We’ll compare stories and notes then and go forward from there.”

 

“Good,” Monica sounded relieves. “Jared, your new contract has already been filled out and is on it’s way over to Eric’s office. Just sign it and send it back to me as soon as you can and we’ll be good to go. You boys have a safe trip up to Vancouver and kick some demon ass! The more seasons you get, the better it looks for me.”

 

Jared and Jensen laughed and bade Monica goodbye. As Jensen finally put his truck into gear and drove off, both were thinking about how crazy their lives were going to be in a few short weeks when the news got out to the fandom. Both thinking the same thing, they both laughed when their hands met as each was seeking out the comfort of the other. They knew then getting through it all would be worth it as long as they could do it together.


End file.
